Getting There...

**THANK YOU** for all the great tips and ideas you have given us about training Maisie! It really helped us to read about your own dog-training stories and knowing that training a dog doesn't take overnight and I admit, I was feeling a bit like a failure thinking we have had her nearly 3 months now and she still isn't potty trained yet.

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Maisie's indoor accidents are becoming less frequent and I am pleased to say that I only cleaned up 2 accidents yesterday! We try to keep a little area for her to do her business in when we go outside and it works-- as soon as I lead her in that spot, she promptly pees.

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We are also keeping her on a long leash when we take her outside now. We had an incident when she knew we would chase her off when she found some cat poop, so she ran off towards the front yard. As I chased her, she ran into the road and I feared for her, praying that no car would come flying down the road and hit her. She looked anxious and tucked her tail under and ran back to the yard when a SUV slowly drove by and I swear the driver of the car gave me a dirty look. I managed to grab Maisie and told her that was the end of her "leash-free" days.

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The leash also keeps her away from the areas where the cats poop and we hope to nip that yucky habit in the bud. She already learned not to snack from the litter box in the house so it's just a matter of helping her learn not to snack on poop outside.

photo taken by Oldest

Here's Maisie all wrapped up. She is a real sweetheart and the girls love her. Though we have our rough moments, I am glad we got her. Just have to remember that not only do we have to train her, we have to train ourselves to adjust to her needs, too. Again, thanks for all the advice, I couldn't have asked for better help and I am so glad that I have you all as friends! :o)