***I received a product sample in hopes I would share my genuine views and experiences here on Momma Told Me. All photos and opinions are copyright Momma Told Me Blog 2014.
Momma Told Me: Like teaching an old dog new tricks.
It's pretty clear by now that pets are family not just in our home, but in our family members homes as well. Growing up Mommas was always pulling animals in off the street and offering hospice for end of life shelter animals. Nora and Goliath are the first pets that didn't come directly from a shelter, and were actually taken in from breeders- Savannah and I have quickly learned that not all breeder dogs are the same, and adopting a dog that has been raised months in such an environment poses it's own struggles. Whether your puppy is from a shelter, pet store, or breeder, one thing every pet parent can agree on is the challenges of
potty training.
When we adopted Nora, about a year and a half back, she was 16 weeks and had absolutely no formal potty training. In fact, she 'marked' the breeder's home 5 times while we signed the paperwork, alone. We were in for an uphill battle that lasted the better part of half a year as we went through faux grass pads, real sod pads outdoors, and several forms of reinforcement training. The one thing that worked best? Positive reinforcement in the form of immediate treats- and I'm talking almost mid tinkle here, folks! So, when Savannah adopted her Weimeraner at 12 weeks I wasn't the slightest surprised to hear of the uphill battle she was fighting to potty (or house) train.
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Having just given birth to her second child, and facing an imminent move out of state I truly wanted to help ease her battle on the issue and help make the transition from new puppy to new baby a little simpler. When I heard about the unique Train N' Praise potty training system by PetSafe I was very excited. In training Nora I'd often said "I wish there was a way I could reward her for using her potty pads when I wasn't home," and Bingo, that's exactly what Train N' Praise does. It provides immediate reward for your pet via it's unique patented moisture sense potty pads OR the included remote. That means that this system can easily be used long after house training is over to enforce and encourage other good behaviors (stop barking, lay down, stay, etc.)
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The Train N' Praise system comes with everything you need except for treats (you'll want to choose the best for your pet's dietary needs anyway,) including 8 AA batteries for the treat dispensing unit, and the mobile remote. For house training purposes you will want to use the system with the specially designed moisture sensing peep pads and mount it on the floor- for treat dispensing after house training you can use the included mount and actually mount the unit to the wall somewhere near a doggy door or other high traffic pet area.
While the business of detecting moisture on a pee pad may seem like magic, the secret actually lies within the PetSafe
Train N' Praise pads, which have a unique motion sensing transmitter grid build into them, that feed to a sensing remote clipped on the end of the pad. Pairing took us a couple attempts, but never needed to be messed with again after initial setup.Once the pad detects moisture the reward system will dispense a portion of treats within 3-5 seconds. It is fairly quite in operation, but audible enough for the dog to know there was something exciting happening the very first time.
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We ran into a few snafus with Goliath- One, he is very much still a puppy, but he is a larger breed, and easily rustles the small square pads when moving, which makes him prone to missing. To account for this you can interlock mats with the purchase of additional motion sensors paired to your main unit- but I'd ultimately prefer to buy one 'large breed' system that has larger pads overall, or the extra clips built into the starter price. Our next issue was Goliath's intelligence- when he finally figured out that the treats came from the device next to the potty pad, and often when he was on the potty pad, he began using the pads for a bed, in hopes he would get lucky an score some free treats.
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If he had been a little smaller puppy we would have been willing ton continue working with the pads as a potty training tool, as it seemed to show great promise until that point- however, we found the device was now most useful as an obedience and training tool. We especially loved that the remote had such a wide range to communicate with the unit, across the room, to help instill the 'stay' and 'quiet' commands. Despite our small hangups with Goliath during the process I honestly feel like the Train N' Praise is a worthwhile investment, particularly for puppies from 8 -16 weeks to start potty training, and even as a tool for older dogs who have experienced recent behavioral hiccups that require correction. I only wish I'd had this system when I was potty training Nora!
What Daughter Says: Take some of the frustration out of house training, for you and your pet, with positive reinforcement.
One Momma Told Me reader will win their own Train N' Praise System!
Train N' Praise
I had a weim for years. He passed away about a year ago. Enjoy him!
ReplyDeleteIt would be for my pups. One particularly troublesome one, he's trained but he'll still go wherever he wants to despite it!
ReplyDeleteWe most certainly could use this. Me adopted Mortimer 2 months ago from a shelter. He is a Catahoula Leopard Hound/American Bulldog and we are in the middle of training.
ReplyDeleteMy dog is a rescue and he got little or no training before we got him. We could definitely use this.
ReplyDeleteNot entering contest because my pups are all grown now, but wish I had something like this when they were little, especially my Pom! Thanks for offering to those who need!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I am slightly afraid of adopting a puppy because of all the extra hassle that comes with it. It is nice to see the tools that can actually help
ReplyDeleteI needed this with my stubborn terrier a few months back!
ReplyDeleteHe is adorable! I wonder if it would work for goats. Bwahahahahaha! I can imagine this would be an excellent product for anyone with a new puppy. I love that it dispenses the treats like that. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteGreat product! I used Pounce cat treats when I was training my dog at the age of 8 weeks. She learned fairly quickly and the smarty pants is now 12 years old and still remembers all the hand signals I taught her. I don't even have to verbally tell her to do something.
ReplyDeleteI'm so lucky that we didn't have a problem with the pets we have now, but this system looks great; I'll have to keep it in mind when we add more members to our family. Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteOMG, this could be the answer to my prayers. We have a six month old puppy, and he's still not totally getting the whole potty thing.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like such a great rewarding system. I don't have any pets but my sister has a puppy so this would be awesome knowledge to send to her!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great ideal. This is perfect because your dog can get positive reinforcement even if you don't happen to be there.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of a Weimeraner! Our dog took a loooooong time to train. She still has accidents when we leave the bedroom doors open!
ReplyDeletePotty training our dog was SUCH a nightmare! This would have come in handy; I'll keep it in mind for our next dog!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool invention. Positive reinforcement is really the only way to train a dog. Yelling and all that other stuff doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteIt cracks me up how he figured out how the system worked and hung out for treats! That is hilarious!!!!
ReplyDeletei love this! I so could have used this when i had my puppy and was training.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome training tool. Positive reinforcement is the only thing that works for training dogs if you want to keep them happy.
ReplyDeleteOkay that has to be one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. I love it. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky with my shihtzu. He's very easy to train.ac
ReplyDeleteMy husband asked today if he could bring home a puppy that the shelter has because it's his dream dog. We might be in need of this system sooner than I originally thought!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing system!! I bet it has saved you a bunch of mess clean ups!!!
ReplyDeleteGoliath is too cute! I love that he laid on the potty mat in hopes of a treat - what a smart puppy! Potty training can be so tough, this system seems like it would be helpful for a lot of dogs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute pup! When my dogs were little, we took a series of dog-training classes. I really wish we had maintained it. My dogs were able to do some fun tricks!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful dog, my in laws used to have 2 this breed of dog. This sounds like a great way to train and enforce.
ReplyDeleteI would share this with my mom if I won. I don't have a dog, but she does. Thanks for the chance to win.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!! Would be great for our new puppy.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me sad because in one hour my puppy is leaving. I just couldnt train her. My sister gave her to me because she had a hard time, and no matter what I tried she peed all over my home too. Wish I had seen this earlier.
ReplyDeleteI just moved to a new state by myself and am getting ready to start 3 12 hour shifts per week. If I could train my four year old dog to use this then I wouldn't need to spend the money to have a dog sitter come let her out.
ReplyDeleteThis is for my dog! He is a boxer/beagle/ hound mix. he really needs trained and doesn't listen. He is one year old and thinks he can do whatever he wants!!! I hope this thing works well! I think he would chew at it until it gave him a treat lol!!!
ReplyDeleteI have a dog that really needs this. I cannot seem to get her fully housetrained no matter what I do.
ReplyDeleteWe will be getting a puppy in a few weeks and it has been a long time since I have potty trained a dog. Any extra help would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea :)
ReplyDeleteI have a one year old dog who is still being trained. Thank you
ReplyDeletecandieluster(at)gmail(dot)com
I would keep this to use with our dog Colby. At two years old he still isn't completely trained and has trouble remembering to go out side to use the bathroom.
ReplyDeletejweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
I would definitely gift this to my parents. They had a Mini Australian Shepard that is just a puppy! He definitely would benefit from this!
ReplyDeleteThis would be a gift for my brother this holiday season. He has an adorable black lab named Riley who is energetic and playful.
ReplyDeleteI would love to give this as a gift to my little furry ones. It would be very useful.
ReplyDeleteThis would be great for our dog duke who is a puppy..I think it would really be helpful for him in training. He does have a few accidents here and there.
ReplyDeleteI would keep this for my new puppy Suggie who is 10 weeks old.She does pretty good with #1 but having trouble with #2.
ReplyDeleteI would give it to my sister, because they just received a little puppy and this would be great for it! Thanks
ReplyDeleteWe would definitely be keeping this! My daughter has been wanting a puppy so we're going to surprise her for her 6th Birthday. I remember the puppy stages, lol this would be great.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 dog babies that could really use this-Mitzi and Layla rescue dogs
ReplyDeleteDiane Baum
esldiane@gmail.com
We just adopted a pup from the shelter she is now 12 wks this would be great for her.
ReplyDeleteI so love this we recently took on a Siberian Husky he is so sweet and we love him so much but he is also stubborn as can be. We have him in puppy classes but this I think would do wonders for getting him potty trained.
ReplyDeleteI would give this to my brother. He just got their kids a new puppy, beagle, and I am sure that they will need the training.
ReplyDeleteArtie is our large, long-haired mixed breed rescue dog. When we adopted him, he didn't know any commands. He has come along way, but we need to work on his jumping and barking.
ReplyDelete