Breakthroughs

Our first breakthrough came on Sunday morning, when Kira FINALLY relieved successfully outdoors. The day before, she had peed three times in her crate and one time on the kitchen rug. I felt that if she could just go in the right place ONCE and I could praise her like crazy for it, half the potty training battle would be won. But after peeing on the kitchen rug at about 4pm, I kept taking Kira outside, but she would not pee!

Even after eating dinner and drinking a lot of water, still no pee! I ended up staying outside with her for two hours straight, from 8pm to 10pm, walking around and around our backyard. I knew if I put her in her crate, she would pee in there, and we'd be reinforcing very bad habits. Finally, at 10pm, I had to give up, and we all went to bed (not necessarily to sleep, though). My husband slept in the family room with Kira on tie down, since we couldn't crate her. He took Kira out two more times in the middle of the night, and STILL NO PEE!

The next morning, I fed Kira breakfast, and then, FINALLY, when I took her outside, the floodgates opened and she peed and pooped like gangbusters. And I praised and praised and praised! Breakthrough Number One (and Number Two, too, I guess you might say)! We have not had an accident since.

The second breakthrough is that Kira and Cabana can now hang out together! We introduced the dogs on leash just after bringing Kira home, in our driveway, which was as neutral a territory as we could get, since Kira is not allowed off our property (due to shedding parvo). Kira barked and lunged, probably mostly out of fear, since it seems like she's never really been around other dogs before. Cabana's response made me see that Kira wasn't aggressive, and Cabana wasn't afraid of her--but Cabana started barking back, and we felt it was best to keep them apart for a while.

Every Sunday morning, my husband makes pancakes for breakfast. I'm not much of a pancake fan myself, but oh boy, Cabana sure is. It turns out that Kira also enjoys pancakes--immensely. We were able to introduce the dogs to each other by feeding them both pieces of pancake simultaneously.

Cabana wouldn't call Kira her best friend, but Kira thinks Cabana hangs the moon. She follows Cabana everywhere. If Cabana goes out to relieve herself, Kira does the same. Now that Kira has Cabana for a role model, she seems so much more confident. She can even walk by her own reflection in our stainless steel trash can without reacting.

Our next hurdle--keeping Kira from barking excessively in the crate.