Day 8: Being Consistent

I can't imagine having a new [human] baby or being a single parent, because it must be waaaaaay more taxing than watching and training a new puppy! A nice cashier lady at Petsmart remarked today how she is potty training her son and that she sympathized. I thanked her and replied that it must be so much harder to potty train a little person, no?

But regardless, the hubby and I are harmoniously working through the daily cleaning, feeding, training, scrubbing, walking, introducing, etc., and it is very very tiring. Getting up in the middle of the night every 1 hour or 2 hours or 3 hours is exhausting.

We coax the puppy out of his crate, stagger downstairs (I almost tripped and fell to my death one night), and pet and praise him (or treat him during daytime) when he pees or poops in his designated area, lined with absorbent pads on a large pad holder. He's given a minute to lick himself [per the vet, puppies often have discharge in the genital area and its natural for them to lick], then it's back upstairs to crate him, pass out in bed, and set our phones for the next potty time.

So far, Geordi already knows to run to the 'potty area', but sometimes misses the pad by a few inches. He is very smart and catching on quickly; we just need to really firmly capture his good potty behavior.