Originally published at: The BarkingMat is the smart dog trainer that actually helps your dog train you | Boing Boing
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I think the headline is right - this mat does nothing to help housebreak your dog, it just trains your dog how to get you to open the door.
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Seems like a potential venue to ask one of my lifelong-idiotic questions: cats use indoor “cat boxes”, why is this not a common option for particularly the smaller dog breeds? (you can’t convince me that average dog isn’t as smart as average cat - at least in matters eliminatory) (“Because, you dumb @#$!, dogs gotta get in the mood, and mark stuff, sniff the air, and b’sides, walking in healthy for them and you!”)
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I achieved the same result for about a dollar and a couple days of paying attention.
We hung a small bell on a string off of the doorknob. Every time we took the puppy out we would first hold its paw and boop the bell before opening the door.
After 2 or 3 weeks of persistent repetition on every excursion, our now nearly year-old pup has yet to have any accident in many months!
Though the one drawback is when puppy is bored, you’ll know it from the frequent non-potty related rings. Fair trade off I would think…
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I hung a string of bells next to the door. Lots cheaper than 70 bucks.
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And hello to the skeptic inside you who might still believe that faithful Rover is nothing but a pet sleeping by the doggie door. Well, doggone it, he’s smarter than you’ll ever be! Yes, I’ve got proof here that his ancestors came from the Dog Star milllions of years ago to rule the Earth! He’s been there —and you probably don’t even know where you are.
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You can train a dog to go in a specific part of your home but dogs don’t have the same poop-burying instinct cats do so your home is gonna get ripe really fast.
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Thank you @ikeOnABike & @plugh, you beat me to it, so happy others know this trick, it cuts the guess work, and the stress with your 4 legged friend.
The bell dangling at the door knob is cheap and effective. I’ve used it for my whole life with doggo friends. Our current dog person is a German Short Haired Pointer, they are high active, and need the exercise to run down some of that energy, thusly the bell works wonders for the both of us. I’m alerted to her needs regardless of potty time or just some romping in the yard. Bell on the door knob works!
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Whoever’invented’ this thing would have been utterly stymied by my girlfriend’s sadly departed hound, Brian, who was the Moriarty of the dog world, and the Grand Master of blagging himself a piss-biscuit. He’d have shorted out its circuitry in a hot minute. Then peed on it so everyone knew who was in charge.
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Exactly what we did, and it worked for a dog who for literally years would not learn any other way.
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We have a $5 bell like you see on a hotel concierge. You can tell how urgently puppy needs to go by how frantically he rings the bell.
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Mine simply took us by the hand and dragged us toward where he wanted us to be. Like by the couch, around the dining table (for the fun of it) then toward the couch, because he wanted to take a nap.
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Answer with a question:
Ever stepped in dog shit and not smelled it? Ever stepped in cat shit and smelled it?
Love GSPs. A friend’s GSP was the only dog I’ve met that loved thunder. “Hurrah! Um, we’re going hunting, right?”
And yes, they have energy to spare.
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Ever stepped in dog shit and not smelled it? Ever stepped in cat shit and smelled it?
Yes (to both). But there are all sorts of efforts to mechanize and de-deodorize the cat-box situation. So whatever distinction there is between a (relatively smaller) dog’s crap and cat crap could be minimalized in that market-place. [shrug]
Do you shave the Pointer, and then glue on the Alsatian fur?
Are Alsatians French or German?
Although Alsace is part of France, its borders have not always been clear. The region has been passed between French and German control several times since 1681, when Strasbourg was conquered by French forces. As a result, Alsatian culture is a unique mix of French and German influences.
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Over here, in the Old Country, German Shepherds* are often called “Alsatians”; something to do with two world wars, I think.
- I misread German Short as German Shepherd.
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I know / figured as much. My Mother’s family are from the Kiel Canal area, we have relatives that are Dutch too. The family name is Von Holtje [Holt-Gaa] the Von was mostly drooped by the new comers here in the USA. But, Mom hung onto it with a death grip.
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