Thank you Marie Forleo And Your Team for Bschool. And All of Your Help And  Lots of Love to Kuma.
The Craven Rd. Fence Project
These are my paintings on the Craven Rd. Fence, part of Toronto’s Beautification project for the city.
One afternoon Zalman and I were down at the barn doing some work with the sheep. I came out of the barn to see what Zalman was yelling about and there running about in a few of the sheep fields were a group of Hounds. He was trying to round them up. “They must have escaped from the Hound rescue,” he said.
Now he managed to get them into one area but he couldn’t get near them. “Wait down here with them, I’ll go up to the house and call the Hound rescue,” (prior to cell phones).
So he went up to the house to make the call. And I got down closer to the ground and started to talk to them. I was telling them not to be scared and everything was going to be okay. They had come to the right place in getting lost. Rose and Zalman loved Animals and we would soon have them safe and sound and back home. They had been very upset when they first arrived and were still somewhat anxious.
But as I spoke they became calmer and as I continued to talk to them with  understanding and love and respect. They could hear me speak to them with absolute truth. I was speaking to them in the way I would want to be spoken to and treated if I was afraid, anxious and upset and lost, and they all began to calm down.
They came to me one by one and by the time Zalman had made his call and gotten back from the house. I was kneeling on the ground holding all of them by their collars in both my hands and everyone was quiet.
And I want it to be clear that Zalman and Rose were incredible with the Animals and I learned so much about love and caring for the Animals from them and about respecting myself.
But what I had done with the hounds is treated them exactly the way I would have wanted to be treated with Love and Respect.
With all of the wonderful people I have worked with over the years. As soon as they add the respect part, everything starts to work and make sense. Because honestly all of the people I have worked with love their Animals. Love and Respect = Unconditional Love.
The Question: How to train a dog to not go to the bathroom in the house and also how to use a pee pad in the house.
Now the dog in this painting is Tripod. I did this painting many years ago, I had just finished school and moved back to Toronto. Tripod’s dad was a photographer and Tripod was a three legged dog. He lost his leg in a car accident when he was a puppy. Tripod always liked to make a statement, thus peeing just outside of the dog run.
How to train a dog to not go to the bathroom in the house
Always start with the talk. So when you want your Animal to do something understand that their bottom line is always love so if you explain exactly what you want and why you want it, with love and respect and understanding you are going to get a lot further with what you are needing from them.
Lets start with something very basic. If you are able to the best thing you can do for your dog to start them out in terms of bathroom training is to take them for walks outside.
Now you can transition this through to pee pad training, or having a special blanket or area in the house that they can go to the bathroom but if you can start by walking them it will be easier and faster.
As a dog walks his/her body naturally is processing everything inside and it is working it’s way out. (Just like with people) And if you start every morning with a  15 to 20 minute walk they will get into the habit and feel the good feeling of peeing outside. Now I would suggest you do this three to four times a day. First thing in the morning before he has time to think about peeing inside. Then again around lunch  and again before bed, if you can fit one in around dinner all the better. I suggest the first walk in the morning and the walk around dinner be the longer ones. The other two can be 10 to 15 minutes . You will start to see that they enjoy going outside. It is also very good to get your dog out after breakfast, but if you have walked earlier than a little time in the backyard should be fine, or what I call a quicky, under or 10 minute walk.
Do this for about two weeks. Now what they are doing is they are starting to enjoy having a specific place/outside to pee and maybe even poop. And try to keep the same route. They will establish regular areas. These areas will be places where other dogs have also peed. That is all good, just remarking and claiming territory. Sometimes poop takes a little longer to get into, but two weeks should work for both.
After the two weeks of walking you introduce the pee pad or blanket. And again first thing you do is sit down with them and have the talk. Explain how much you love them and what you are doing and why you want them to do this. The why is key. When you respect them enough to explain, it makes a difference.
Now you pick your pee pad, or blanket or whatever surface you would like them to use and you put it in a particular place. You can have a couple places if you like The key being pick that place or two places and that is always where the pee pad or blanket goes each and every time. You are establishing their territorial marking space, and it needs to be the same place.
And I am going to add if possible it is always good to take your dog for a walk. But if that is not possible than it is not.
Now the way you establish this as the peeing and pooing place is with complete and absolute diligence. So each and every time you see them peeing somewhere else you go to them say their name first, then say they No, Name you are not allowed to pee/poo here,  and then take them to the designated pee/poo place. And if it is poo then you take a tissue pick the poo up and take it with you over to the place that is the designated area, put it down tell them this is the good place to poo and how good they will be when they poo here.
This is where they are to go to the bathroom. Do not rub their nose in it and do not lift them while they are pooing. You do not want to cause elimination problems due to fear of being moved around or punished. Wait until they are finished then take them to the correct place. But you have to do it each and every time you see them.
Our animals are Very smart and they would like to do things there way so they will try and break you down. So diligence, each and every time is the key here. If they see you seeing them and you do nothing about it, (and just like us they have eyes in the back of their heads.) I.E. They can feel it. That is like 3 steps back wards. And if you come home to it. Do the same thing you do as when you are there. Except first you will take them over to the pee or poo, say their name tell them it is bad to pee/ or poo there and then take them to the designated area, same thing.
Step One – The Talk
Step Two – Walking outside for two weeks, three to four times a day.
Step Three – Set up the area in your house pee pad or blanket and become diligent about every time they go to the bathroom, they go in that area.
And if you cannot walk them then you go from Step 1 to Step 3. However it will take less time if you can walk them and continue to walk them.
Let us make Art of that which we Love. Let it be forever and let it be worth everything. The Highest expression of life is Love.
An Animal Family Portrait Makes a Wonderful Gift