Summer Adventure Part IV

Wow Daily Posts!
I'm going to try a different approach to this whole potty training thing, as Zipper will hold "it" forever. I've caught her in the act THREE TIMES today and race her outside to no avail.  There is just too much to see, hear and smell.... Its almost as if she's never been outside for long periods of time, though judging what my neighbor had said, she hasn't. Anyway back to the game plan. 
Part I
We started today by dividing my her life into 30 minute increments. First 30 minutes was me getting read for the day after a potty break, which she did since she HAD to go and had NO chance of going inside, lots of praise for that! Second thirty minutes was breakfast in her crate, while I fed/interacted with the other dogs, and I ate something...which I don't think happened...oh well.
Next 30 minutes was potty time again, still nothing but I had the presence of mind to small dog proof while she was crate, which basically means, stuffing boxes and etc. under coffee tables, moving chairs so their is not space behind them for a puppy to get behind potty.. (*COUGH* *COUGH* BUBBLES AND TEXAS) And bringing out the potty  pads, for the spots she's already hit. Apparently when I turned my back, she went in and peed on the pad, and was about poop(..not on the pad,) when I rushed her outside. Still nothing, so I blocked her into the kitchen while I did the dishes. 30 minutes ticking away. She entertained herself by getting on the kitchen table. A HUGE NO-NO! So we removed her access to that, and went back to dish washing.

Part II
I have decided to see if she'll go if placed loose in an x-pen type situation. The one I have currently is cloth and short enough that she can jump over easily, so i'll have to keep a leash on her somehow, but if I can get her to think she's loose.....? Or else I'll just take the puppy pads outside and see if she'll go on that. She can't not go, and sooner or later its gotta come out. I just want to be the one to catch it. NoT CATCH it.. you know what i mean.

{1 toy + 3 dogs does not = good. Notice Bubbles is headed out of the way}

Part III
We did start some clicker training, since she's calmed down, and we're getting the whole "sit" on command thing. Texas has throughly spoiled me, start teaching him something and within two or three clicks, he's got it down pat.
Pompeii, Bubbles, Tim, Veda, Ben, Victoria, Daniel, Gideon, Eden, Ira, Rei, Jake...not so much.
Which makes it very easy to get frustrated with her and call her stubborn/dumb. *cough DAD* (Everyone else ignore the messages between the lines :)) So I make sure to keep training session extremely short, like 5 minutes max so that we both end on a good note.
She's actually already picking up a lot in just 24+ hours. She knows "wait" means not to move forward when the door is opened.  She's learning sitting might possibly get something good, and wonder of wonders she's not lunging at the end of the leash. much. Hey progress is progress is my opinion. Feel free to make it yours.
Part IV
Crate training is actually going a lot better than I thought, last night we had an "incident" and I placed her in the crate. I was mean and got my water bottle out for the whining and just squirted it over her crate, verses smacking her directly. And she slept through the night. Thank you God.

{Queen Bee}

I hate to admit this....but this was the perfect diversion I needed this summer!