It’s a dogs life…
You know your puppy loves you true and strong, when he bounds into the living room and jumps up on the couch beside you all excited like. Then he turns, looks at your laptop (ironically, on your lap) and pukes on your leg, just missing the computer.
That is true puppy love…
Or – When ya gotta go, ya gotta go…
We are currently going thru stage 2 of puppy potty training. Harley is now 9 months, and he has had the whole ‘I should go outside to do my business’ thing down pretty good for a while now. We add an extra degree of complication, in that we have a concrete ‘Pee Patch’ in the yard that is where they are supposed to go. It allows us to sanitize the area, and keeps damage to the grass to a minimum.
Harley has been resistant to using the patch, and today I fenced in a section so that we can put him in it and he can’t escape. That just ratcheted up the battle of wills – he will sit and look at me, but will not go. Eventually I let him out, because hey, we don’t always have to go.
After dinner tonight, we settled into a movie and surfing while Harley and Eve played in the dining room adjacent to our living room. They were roughhousing about as they so often do, when suddenly Harley appeared at the door with a panicked look on his face.
He had to go, and as they say – ya gotta go when ya gotta go, cuz if you don’t, when you do you will find you’ve already gone. He turned and made for the back door and the urgency of the matter hit critical mass. Unfortunately, while he did make for the back door, things were already in motion.
I have never seen so much come from so little – of a dog. There was no need for a correction, he knew that what was happening wasn’t good and we were laughing so hard at the entire situation we couldn’t have even if we wanted to. Not that we did want to, this was just one of those things that happens with a new puppy in the house.
We’ll get there… eventually… And we now have a squeaky clean country kitchen floor.
S
Well, today Harley decided to show me that he understands loopholes in his commands already. He isn’t supposed to be on the stairs. When I was in the kitchen this morning, he proceeded to perch himself on one of the carpeted stairs, and stare at me. He has mastered a very cute version of complete defiance…
So, being the ever diligent dog owner who seeks to be consistent with his training, I commanded him to get on the floor. This was his response…
<sigh>
Yesterday we made a quick trip up to my mom’s place, a couple hours from here for a visit. Mom has had a couple of poodles for quite a few years, and a few months ago poor Christopher reached the end of his run. His littermate Jonathan is also entering into the homestretch, so my sister decided that it would be good for Mom to have a new companion, a decision that I think awesome.
So upon arrival at Mom’s, we were surprised to find her new little buddy, Max. Now, ‘little buddy’ really doesn’t quite cover it. He is a 9 week old Chihuahua puppy, so he is tiny. Harley, who is tiny compared to his sister Eve, towered over Max. Max actually walked under Harley with little difficulty. He is cute as can be, and has an attitude that is just great. He chased Harley around, and just basically indulged himself in all the behaviours that puppies do. It was funny to see Harley on the receiving end of what he dishes out to Eve all the time.
Harley had a pretty good sense of humour about it, even though he was feeling less than stellar due to the trip. So far he is still like a fine bottle of wine – he doesn’t travel very well. He will get better with travel as he gets older and more used to it, but in the mean time we have to deal with a pukey puppy. Due to Jonathan’s advancing years and frailty, Eve spent the day at the doggy spa instead of making the trip. We were just too worried that in her exuberance, Eve would damage poor old Jonathan. She will get a chance to meet Max before too long, and I will make sure to have a video camera handy for that one!
We welcome Max to the family, and thanks to Heather and Ed for setting up Mom with her new little friend!
Hi Everyone – we are doing our best to get into all sorts of ‘stuff’ that you may find amusing. Stay tuned for stories from the kennel!