I'm trying to implement a supervisory circuit which acts as an external watchdog timer which resets my 16f877a chip if the program locks up.

In order for it to work the program on the 877a must strobe the TC32M every so often or the TC32M will reset the pic. Under normal operation everything works as it should.

I have a problem however when I try to program the chip with a bootloader. Durring the programing the TC32M does not see the required strobe so it resets the pic and the programing stops.

Anyone know any creative options to make the bootloader work with this supervisory circuit?