We brought our new rat terrier puppy home yesterday. Her name is Sidney; she's about nine weeks old.  I've been scouring the web for training advice since then.  We're crate training her.

Based on what I've read, I've come up with the following schedule for her (below).  This works with our schedule as well, and we're going to try to follow this as closely as possible, adjusting as she grows and learns.

I'd like your thoughts on this schedule--does it seem reasonable for her? Any comments are appreciated.  Thanks!

Brian

Housetraining Schedule

I have two girls and I promised them a dog a couple of years ago. They reminded me often, but they weren't ready until now. They're now 7 and 8.

We looked at several breeds--my wife wanted a toy, but I didn't want a dog quite that small. Somewhere on the internet I happened across a picture of a rat terrier, and after a little bit of research I knew that a rat would be perfect for us.

I'd been scouring the internet daily looking for a breeder with puppies that was somewhat close to us--I couldn't find one. On my way out the door one day I took one last look on Puppyfind.com and the first puppy that showed up was in New York. I'm in Pittsburgh, and a quick Google Map search showed that the breeder was only about 3 1/2 hours away. We got on the phone with her, found out that she had puppies that had just become ready to adopt, and after several pictures and phone calls, we decided on her. We had her the next morning, and she's been fantastic.

She's named after Sidney Crosby--my family is hockey crazy.

I did read about the importance of the crate size. We bought one that she'll grow into, but I'm going to divide it to fit her at her current size. So far she's been very good about using it--she slept well through the first night with a couple of wake-ups for bathroom breaks.

I'm thinking of training her to use a bell to let us know she has to go. We live just off the street, so she has to go down through the basement and out the back to get to the yard. I'm going to put the bell at the top of the basement steps. I feel that the bell is less open to interpretation--a ring should be a clear sign that she has to go.

I made a sheet (as you suggested) to keep track of her schedule. I'm optimistic that the family can stick to it and we can train her properly.

I'll post some pictures soon. My kids took a bunch & I have to get them off of the camera. Thanks for the reply, and I'm always open to suggestions and advice!

Thanks,

Brian

*** edit: photo added as avatar: taken the night before we brought her home ***

We're neighbors. We're in Penn Hills.

@ the newspaper training - I have heard that you shouldn't use it, for the reason you gave. I have just stuck with crate training for years and never bother with the paper. I've heard that once they start going in the house, regardless to the using paper, they have a hard time un-learing not to go in the house.

Crate Training worked great for our little guy. He is almost 5 months old and by using the crate training we rarely have an accident.  Sometimes our little pup gets to playing too hard and has an accident but he gets better and better. But I owe all of our success to Crate Training.  Your schedule looks great. We never had anything on paper but we kept the same schedule based on our work schedule every day and it has been a great success.