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Just wondering what kind of stuff all you guys do in the house while you have your dogs on umbilical? I'm trying to do some housework which is going all right. I have to clean the litter boxes and Bayley knows she's not allowed in the cat's room..so I take her off for a little bit and then hook her back up. I don't want to give her mixed signals and certainly don't want to start any litter diving on her part..she's been really good about staying out of the boxes, only caught her once.

I can do pretty much anything around the house with Fizz on umbilical, except a couple things. The litter thing I can understand, but another one for me is cleaning bathrooms. Because the cleaner I use has fumes that are kind of nasty, I figured it would be bad to expose him to them, so I don't clean the bathroom with him on umbilical. But I do other things, like clean the kitchen, cook, vacuuming, watch tv, on the computer, phone, etc.

I found it really difficult/interesting doing in-house umbilical. I am the type of person who rarely sits down - I'm doing housework, school work, on the computer, organizing files, etc. I don't think I even realized how much running around the house I did until I had my Boston Terrier tied to my waist. I don't think he realized it either. My advice - just do whatever you would normally do if he wasn't tied to you, even if that is sit and watch TV for an hour. Not moving at all is even work for the dog - it teaches him patience, waiting. You could even practice sit-stays while you are watching TV (both with and without the leash). I remember Brad telling us to do 2-3hrs/day of umbilical training and I wondered how I would ever fit that in to my busy schedule (I was working 2 jobs and doing my accounting designation) but in-house umbilical made it easy.

Hope this helps,

Sherry

We have a 14 week old Blk Lab and I'm finding the in house training easy to fit in...especially since the Pup still sleeps a ton! I do laundry, general household chores, changing the beds, washing the floors, sweeping, feeding the bunnies, cook dinner etc. Sometimes she gets dragged about as she wants to sleep some more but I've been standing my ground. She's gone from a snuggly little 12 lb puppy, to a now almost 30 lb pup...she'll be over 75 lbs but the time she's a yr so I want to make sure we get it right now!

Our "puppy" is already 62 lbs !

We pretty much live in a VERY small house. Picture a rectangle divided in 2.

The "front" side has the kitchen, then living area, then "dining" room. Practically one long room. This is where we let our dog walk free, when not on umbilical.
We have taken a lot of stuff out from this side (cat's bed, throw pillows etc) because the dog USED to put everything in his mouth and think it was a toy. We ahve started to add things back into the room every week.
Like 1.5 weeks ago I would NEVER have left a newspaper or a drink on the coffee table ! Now, no problem.

There is one stair, diving the 2 sections of house. It has baby gate - for now - I know, I know. BUT we only started having him walk around free in the house 4 weeks ago, and only started umbilical 9 days ago !

The "bacK" side of the house has our bedroom, bathroom, and changing room with dressers, etc, and a laundry room.
This section is off limits at this point.

Because our house is so small and our dog so big I can't imagine cleaning up every little thing that the dog could reach on the back side of the house. I mean, there are SOOO many temptations for his mouth that I don't think I could handle the stress of it. I'm not sure how to start him in this part of the house.

So - most of our umbilical in the house is preparing meals, washing dishes, watching tv, the usual stuff you'd DO in these rooms.

Any ideas?

KeymoFrisby - I'm in the same boat as you - I live in a ground floor flat, where the front is bedroom and bathroom, and in the back there is open plan living room and kitchen, it's like living in a box. It helps that my dog is no where near 62lbs, but it still makes indoor umbilical totally monotonous We have no stairs to practice (my puppy is still useless at stairs - but I'm not complaining because we'll be moving to somewhere much bigger in June and I'm hoping to make upstairs off limits to my dog.)

So I'll have him on umbilical while I'm watching TV, cooking, washing up, and cleaning up the garden (we have a garden that's like the same size as the flat, so that's one good thing!)


I think it's good thing though, because I can use the park for obstacles and running around, but in such a small space as our flat, my dog really has to be watching where my feet are going - so they're not landing on his head!!

I can imagine about the things he could get his paws on at the back of your place - around my place there's my make-up, jewelery, perfume, stuff like that... my dog tries now and again but can't quite reach! I'd suggest you just take him there on umbilical one day, act normal, and see how he is - he might just surprise you and make no attempt to grab anything... and if he does, correct him. it'll be reassuring if you know he can be in a room full of stuff and not touch anything! Give it a go!