Our puppy Scully has passed a significant landmark. She is now over six months old, and as of yesterday we have declared her officially fully house trained. I marked the occasion by doing a thorough carpet cleaning, with spot stain remover, followed by shampooing and steam cleaning using a hired machine from Bunnings hardware.
This feels like a symbolic cleansing ritual, to rid the house of the bad spirits of toilet accidents and the ghosts of pee stains on the carpet. It feels like a major turning point, and the difficult and messy days of the past are now gone.
The last time Scully did an unprovoked pee in the house was on 3 September, over 7 weeks ago. She did have an accident on 10 October, but that was caused by us being neglectful. We have trained her to use a bell by the front door – when she needs to go outside to toilet, she rings the bell, and we come to take her out. Unfortunately on the 10th my wife and I were both busy and when Scully rang the bell neither of us got to her for a couple of minutes. By the time we could go to Scully, she had peed on the carpet next to the bell. We kind of don’t count this one as her fault.
Being house trained makes a big difference to our stress levels. When we first got her, we were constantly following her around the house, never letting her out of sight for a second, and prepared to pounce and pick her up instantly if she showed any sign of preparing to pee. It was a stressful time, and gave us no spare time to do normal household chores. But now we can trust that she’s not going to pee in the house, and if she needs to go she lets us know, so we can relax and do things without having to constantly be on the lookout.