I command you to be cute!

Sorry for the break in updates. My parents were in town this weekend so I spent my time with them. I think my mom was more excited to meet Elphie than she was to see me. Sure she gave me a hug and kiss when she walked through the door, but then she made a beeline for the dog and gave her a treat. She didn’t give me a treat.

My mom was able to get Elphie to sit and shake within the 24 hours she visited. It was pretty amazing. She did go through training her own dog from a puppy so I’m sure that helped. I also credit it to the treats. She brought her own dog treats with her and Elphie went insane over them. Now Elphie sits and a raises her paw on her own. It’s pretty darn cute and I can’t do anything else but laugh. Now we’re working on “down” and “stay”. She’s pretty smart so I’m not too worried about it. Who needs training classes when you got a mom and a really smart puppy?!?! I’ve been working with her on the commands every day. She still has the attention span of a pea so we don’t do it too long. But she’s getting the hang of it! The whole “down” concept is a little uncomfortable for her…she just ends up rolling around. But at least she’s down!

The potty box was delivered on Friday afternoon. It’s pretty awesome. It’s a light weight wood box with a laminate floor and you unroll sod into it. I’m not sure if Elphie knows exactly what to do with it yet. She’s gone to the bathroom on it, yes, but she also lays in it and eats the grass, too. Yesterday morning I left her out on the patio as I showered and got ready for work in hopes that she would get used to the box. Hubby said she eventually went in it so that’s a relief. Less of a mess for him to come home to. Of course this morning I went out there to nothing. I guess we’re still within the learning curve. I just want her to like staying out there on her own and not use the patio as punishment. The way I see it is if she thinks outside is bad then she’ll be going inside and we don’t want that. It helps to hang out there with her, too. As long as she’s ignored for a little bit she’ll get to what she’s supposed to do – in theory.

It does get frustrating, though, when I want/need her to go and she doesn’t and then I have to take her out front to go instead. The other night I took her out front as a last ditch effort but unfortunately there was a mom and her two little kids hanging out front (I don’t know what it is, but everybody hangs out front of our complex!) so when they saw Elphie they immediately thought it was play time. On one hand it’s good that she’s being introduced to kids of all ages because it’ll get her used to being around kids, but on the other hand it’s not good when I need her to go to the bathroom before bed and the kids follow us up and down the sidewalk. I’ve tried telling my neighbors that Elphie’s out there for a reason, but they don’t fully understand nor care that I don’t want to talk to them. I’m just too nice. I should just say, “look lady on the phone with your annoying kids petting my dog, I don’t know you nor do I like you so I’m going to take my dog so she can s**t out here, preferably on your shoe, so she doesn’t s**t all over my floor instead. Kthanksbye.” Alas that’ll never happen…so I’ll just continue to grin and bear it.