Ella is 16 weeks on Sunday and is 'sort of' toilet trained. 'Sort of' means when mum's at home she's fine but when dad's at home she has accidents. I don't think she's had an accident at home with me in a couple of weeks (excluding the uncontrolled spraying poo incident - but you can't exactly blame that on her) but nearly every time she's at home with my husband she has an accident. The easy part of toilet training seems to be teaching Ella, the not so easy part seems to be reminding my husband that you can't sit on the couch for three hours and expect Ella to come over and tell you that she needs to go to the toilet! And his response.. "she only behaves for you" Arggghhhh
I had to make mine take the pup out every thirty mins and then made him clean up any accidents it seemed to improve his concentration. I even used to phone him or text him so he had no excuse. My dogs do behave for me they take the p**** out of my husband sorry bad pun. she is a real cutie she'll sort him out
It is frustrating - my other half is ok with making sure Murphy goes to the loo regularly, but he is a pain for letting him jump up on him. "He is only saying hello" he says or "youve got to get down mate, your mum says so" whilst stroking him!!!! AGGGGHHH!!! I dont think there is an answer really - I just make sure I do even more training and praise for him getting it right (the dog, not the hubby!) - even my six year old daughter is a better dog trainer than he is ha ha!
I think, generally, dogs are quite good at (eventually) learning to act differently with different people. Charlie and my OH sort of get along fine. It is incredibly difficult watching OH walk Charlie though - or rather watching Charlie walk OH, with a random collection of noises issued that Charlie is supposed to understand mean "leave it", "this way", "here" - mostly commonly "tup-a-tup Charlie, tup-a-tup" which means anything my OH wants it to mean at that particular moment in time. Charlie has largely figured him out, and ignores the noises, taking his cues instead from OH's gestures and body language. I look on the bright side, at least he isn't messing with my properly trained cues...
The most infuriating thing for me is OH repeating everything I say! Me: "Leave it!" (chirpy), immediately followed by OH, "Leeeeeeeeave itttttt!!" (gruff). Honestly.... STOP IT ALREADY!!! Or, repeating things more than once. "Willow.....Willow......Willow......Willow". Yes, she knows her name but she doesn't know what in the name of all that is holy you want her to do! So, guess what? She's ignoring you!!! They are good at distinguishing, though, because I've been working on their names meaning "attention on me" and they do that very well with me. With him, no, they just ignore him!
Ahh, you are all making me feel so much better! snowbunny my OH does the gruff voice too... "ELLA COME, NOW" across the park. Yep, that's going to work considering I've only just started the first step of on a loose lead recall in a controlled environment!
Same here Emily! I can say to Mr Boogs "I'm just popping upstairs, please watch Twiglet, she's due for a wee". Come back down to husband, kitchen roll and Simple Solution
I love all these comments - I can so relate to each and every one - inattentive OH allowing pup to wee indoors, repeating everything I say, gruff voice to ask Juno to do something (I save that for if she is really fooling around and ignoring me - it really works then). His only redeeming grace is that he doesn't allow Juno to jump up to greet (must have trained him fully there ). Life would be so simple if we could only train the men
Sorry to disappoint you, but OH and I share the chores. Whoever is closest when Holly needs the garden lets her out and clears up the poop. We share the training and have agreed on commands. OH does the main walks during the week, and I do longer main walks at weekends (usually all morning and back for lunch). We walk her together in the evenings. We are a team. Holly ignores us equally.
Ah, you see, Hollysdad , we are not disappointed. We know there are male OHs like you around - we've heard about them before - but, just like puppies that sleep through, don't jump up, and walk nicely on a lead from day one, they always belong to someone else....
Well said JulieT I know once the puppy is here , toilet training or any kind of training will be on me . My husband and daughter will only help with play I know from my experience of potty training my daughter
OH and I both had dogs when we met so we both knew the score. I had a black Lab, she had two spaniels and a King Charles. Over the last 30 something years we've just carried on doing what we were already doing. The secret to success is simple: marry another dog owner!
Hollysdad we do share chores, OH does the morning toileting when he is here followed by breakfast and has been taking Juno out at lunchtime for her shorter walk. Apart from that I do the training (not letting him anywhere near proper training) but he's great for playing in the garden with a football . Again when he is here we do the longer late afternoon/early evening walk together, so we do share responsibilities but that doesn't make OH reliable
This is not a male/female thing, I think. I think it's who is interested in training thing. My OH loves Charlie to bits, and certainly does his fair share - more than his fair share. He's been out in all weathers, 5, 6, 7 times a day, with a stop watch round his neck walking Charlie through his recovery. He has taken as much time off work as I have to nurse Charlie, and iced legs and learned how to do PROMS as well as I have...and it'll be him, not me, jogging up hills with Charlie next week to build up fitness... It's just he is not interested in dog training and doesn't really see the need (he would if I didn't do any though ). Plus, he is a relaxed kind of person, doesn't care if Charlie jumps up on visitors, and indeed thinks Charlie's ability to get into mischief is generally just funny (that might be part of the problem ). He also doesn't care whether Charlie brings a dummy back, and cheers him on during victory laps. I'm not going to change my OH. And Charlie wouldn't want me to do so. I have to accept this is the environment that I have, try and train despite it, live with the compromises, and - critically - not use it as an excuse. My training has to be good enough so my dog behaves even so.
when my dogs are good they are our dogs when they are bad the are my dogs. We (friends) call my beloved "the beast master" after the really silly 80's film. I think he's worked out we are being ironic and cheeky. He maintains that I'm the real beast. He loves them and trys to understand them but all my animals really have got his number. He tells them to do something and they look at me to see if it needs to be taken seriously. The thing he really excels at though is putting in eyedrops and teaching dogs to get onto cars and not be afraid, if i could rent him out for that I'd make a fortune.
