Jingle Bells in June

Mario is our foster dog.  No foster comes without a few little things that need to be tweaked.  Mario is a great dog, loving, sweet, smart. He is going to start obedience classes tonight as a refresher course for  himself and for hu-mom.  Hu-mom knows the basics, she took me to classes when I was a pup but that was a 6 years ago!  

One thing that Mario never learned was to let the hu-mans know when he needs to go outside.  He has had only a few accidents. Once when he had an episode of the runs and squirts (pardon my French but that it is what it is).  And two pee episodes.  They have occurred when humans are home. He will pee right next to the human.  Hu-mom remembers Mario was very close to her, milling around, when he peed on the plastic mat (thank heavens) behind her as she sat at her desk in the home office.  She heard the noise and knew  immediately what was happening.  The 1st time, there was a puddle near the back door.  (FYI-Mario pees like a girl, no leg lifting for him.)

After the 2nd episode, hu-mom realized Mario never "tells" us he needs to go out. Since she doesn't work anymore, she lets the doggies in and out a lot.  So hu-mom remembered reading somewhere about teaching a dog to ring bells attached to the "out" door. So she clicked to Amazon.com and purchased a set of Poochie Bells!

She attached the Poochie Bells to the sliding glass door that we use to go in and out. Aren't they cute? 

Here are the simple steps:

1. Hang bells on/near door

2. At potty time bring pooch to bells, ring and give verbal command you use for potty and let pooch out. 

3. At each potty time repeat, be consistent and praise your pooch.

4. Soon they will ring on their own to let you know when they need to go out!

The reviews are good as long as you are persistent in training! 

Mario and his bells.  Hu-mom has been teaching Mack and Me to use the bells, too.  We've only had them for 2 days, so we'll keep everyone posted on our progress and see who learns to use the bells first! And don't worry, they are loud enough so if the humans are upstairs they should hear us ring the bells. 

I'm supposed to do what? 

Tag from the bells



Mack was nearby helping with the pictures, so here he is bright and early in the morning.  Minnie was sleeping in....so she missed out on the photo shoot.

This looks like a mug shot!!  (Those black things on the side of his face are beauty marks, not ticks!)

We hope every is enjoying beautiful June weather.

Love,
Minnie  : )