Some people have more trouble housetraining a dog, but James was a breeze. There were still some things, though, that I picked up, and that later helped when it was time to start potty training my daughter. I would come home from work and Timmy, my wife’s personality-filled orange cat, would walk halfway down the stairs, see it was me who came home and turn right around. Of course, when my wife came home things were completely different. Timmy would come down to greet her, meowing and purring in celebration of her arrival home. After a few months of this rejection, I came to a conclusion: I needed a dog. After a little searching, my wife and I adopted a rescue puppy we named James. He was brown with white paws and brown eyes. He was also only eight weeks old and was still learning to be housetrained. For him the process meant pawing at our back door to be let out, opposed to using the carpet. There were a few accidents along the way, but James quickly learned where he was to go and, more importantly, where not to go. Now, I would like to say that I did a masterful job at training James to properly use the bathroom, but in all honesty, he picked it up without much real teaching.
Potty Genius Blog
How My Dog Prepared Me for Potty Training My Daughter
I know many parents may roll their eyes at comparing their child to their dog. I get that. However, since I grew up without any younger siblings or relatives, having a dog was my first time taking care of a living creature. To do my best for him, I needed to learn how to communicate more than anything else, and that served me well during bathroom training my daughter.