neomommytas

It wont last long, but as others have said it's basically the same as having a baby. Count your lucky stars that she's well behaved and waking you when needing to go. I had a dog once that, even at nearly 4 yrs old, would still mess inside. Our new little guy is just over 12 months old and has been a blessing. After the settling in he hasn't had one accident inside. In the first two weeks I was up every few hours taking him outside to make sure he would get the idea, now we can be gone all day and come home to a clean laundry (this is where they stay when we aren't home). It's all about sticking with it, even if you have to have an afternoon nap to catch up on sleep. Putting pup in her crate for an hour while you nap will help keep you sane.

I use to have an only dog. Until I met hubby and he convinced me to get a play mate. Our little guy was 4 yrs old when we adopted a German Shepard cross from our local Dog's Home. She was around 3 yrs old at the time. Our little guy past away 3 yrs ago. Then we adopted a Doberman cross, but he recently had to be re-homed to a house hold that didn't have young children. He snapped at some young toddlers I had here, even though he's been around young children since he was a pup of 10 weeks old. Now we have added another addition to the house to replace the Dobie. Again this guy is an adoption from the local Dog's Home. Fitted straight in. Love the kids and my cousins younger children ( aged 17 months and 3 yrs). I would never have an only dog. Our new guy is 1 yr old and house trained. I would probably never get a pup again, I'm now more favorable towards dogs that are a little older. Wait until you have trained your current dog and its out of the hardest parts of puppy hood. Then think about and start making steps to getting another.

The method that I have used with the last few pups and it works a treat....

pup on lead, start walking silently with your hands both clasped with the lead against your chest...and don't move them., dog rushes ahead, you turn silently and head off in other direction, pup comes to end of lead, discovers that you aren't there about turns and rushes past you again, again, silently, about turn and walk in opposite direction - etc etc etc.........you will most likley get dizzy the first few times you try, but they learn very qiuickly, without you having to correct them, that if they rush past to the end of the lead, you will disappear, and they start to both keep an eye on you (always a good thing) and also to stop pulling because they realise that if they pull you disappear and they have to change direction because they get to the end of the lead and that in itself is a correction....

If pup decides to get creative (which they do during this process) and tries to go around you or wrap you up in the lead, stop for 20 seconds, say nothing, then turn around in the way you have to to untangle yourself without using your hands and off you go again...if it happens again, stop wordlessly, wait then untangle and set off again .... it's a great method...

I'd give this a try. Many people I know have had get results with this method. My dad used it with his 4 Rotties, and now his Mastiff. I haven't tried it yet, as my Dobie walks beside me because he's so tall I normally have the lead wrapped around my hand so it's close to his collar. Sometimes depending where we are I can hold his collar.

Rest in peace poor dear. Deepest sympathies to the family