Friday, June 29, 2012

The Ups and Downs of Puppyhood

It's good to have Nika back after our trip.  Yesterday after Jonah's class she came to our frisbee game and met lots of friends.  I love having the ex-pen.  She could see us, we could see her, we could leave her happily, and other people could come visit her happily.  She got to play with four children (one of whom she'd met previously) and lots of adults.  I think she had a great time.  She was truly pooped at the end of things.

So...then she slept through the night...maybe.  Neither Dave nor I heard her get unhappy in the night, and with the crate right next to the bed it's a little hard to sleep through her being upset.  But when I picked her up when the alarm went off, she had peed in her crate.  Yarg!  Bad us.  I guess maybe we should set an alarm half way through the night rather than depending on her to tell us when she has to go out.

We had an excellent training session this morning.  It was the second time I'd used the clicker.  Yesterday (the first time), she was uninterested in her food, so I had to bring out the big guns:  string cheese.  She thought that was most excellent.  This morning, she was hungry, so her puppy kibble did the job.  First I spent a while charging the clicker, and then we did sits and downs.  Nothing fancy, but I worked on changing my body position.  I started sitting with her, then sitting beside her, then standing in front of her, then standing next to her.  She was excellent.  Numerous times I tried ending our session and playing with her, but her focus was right there and she just kept wanting to play the training game.  So, we did 4 mini sessions with some running around in between.  We switched locations for the sessions, too.  I was super pleased.  What a good girl.

Then a couple hours later she peed in her crate again.  She'd peed outside just an hour before, and I was right there next to the crate but I didn't notice.  Another bad me moment.  The whole crate training thing sort of depends on the puppy not soiling the area they sleep in, but today she doesn't seem to be following that principle.  She was lying right in it--it's not like the crate's too big and she went to another corner.  I hope she doesn't have a UTI or anything.  She doesn't seem at all uncomfortable.  Now she's asleep but as soon as she wakes up she's going out!

She is getting very good about peeing each time we take her out, though.  That's a major plus.  She still hasn't had any accidents in the house other than in her crate, which is very much appreciated.

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