Elphie bit me this morning when we were playing and boy did it hurt! Her little jaw is getting stronger by the day. We were playing tug-of-war with her bunny. I guess she went to bite a piece of it but got my hand instead. Oh, man did I get mad. I yelped, clapped my hands and said, "NO!" very sternly. The poor thing had no idea what was going on. She just laid there looking at me. I then took the advice of the book and walked away into another room and closed the door. This is supposed to let them know that they did something bad and that their human friend is upset and doesn't want to play with them anymore. I don't think she got it 'cuz I could hear her running around. I had to leave for work anyway so when I came back upstairs she was drinking water in her pen so I just shut the gate, let her lick me and said goodbye. I have to admit, though, my hand was throbbing a little bit on my car drive into work.
It's frustrating because I want and need her to understand me better than she does. But she's still so young and we haven't had her for very long so it's going to take some time. But I don't like to wait! Why can't it happen NOW?!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Focus, Elphie, focus!
You know it's really annoying when, after a long day at work, you come home and walk the dog, and all you want is for her to go to the bathroom outside, both #1 and #2, so you can both go back inside, play and relax. But then destiny laughs in your face, because the walk you're on is during prime dog-walking time, and all of your neighbors and their dogs and their kids want to stop you and pet your puppy, because their dogs are no longer puppies, and your puppy is so small and excitable and cute, so then your puppy loses focuses on the task at hand and ends up not going to the bathroom outside, at least not going #2, and then you have to deal with her mess once she makes it inside. Or you have to take her out again shortly after your first walk, because she remembers that, "hey, I was out there for a reason wasn't I?" and then starts sniffing in circles and running to and from the door to let you know that now she's ready to do her duty...literally. Sound familiar?
Puppies are like babies - you show them something shiny, they're absolutely enthralled for 10 minutes, but then they hear a sound or see a cat and they lose focus. After her last walk of the night last night, hubby and I decided to try a little training. First off, Elphie is scared of hubby, probably because he's the disciplinarian, is stricter than I am and doesn't roll around on the floor with her during play time. But after expressing how much I want her to be our dog, hubby started to lighten up and began using high pitched voices and petting her more. She's still pretty scared of him, but I'm hoping with some perseverance she'll start to warm up to him. Anyway, last night we started doing a little training. We tried to get Elphie to sit on command. According to the book, the easiest way to teach 'sit' is to keep her on a leash and use a tasty nibblet as incentive. You get her interested in the treat and then slowly raise the treat above her nose/head and the moment her butt hits the ground you say 'SIT' and give her the treat. Then you praise her by petting her and saying, "Good sit". So hubby tried this twice and then I tried it twice. She didn't really get it. I think by that time she was tired and so over treats that she just didn't care. But the funny thing is, she just kinda sits anyway. When we put her leash on for the training exercise, she would just sit down, so hubby had to lift her hiney up in order to teach her how to sit! I guess that's good?
We're also trying to teach her how to heel on walks. When she gets really excited and starts running or jumping up and down or distracted by something, we pull on the leash and say "HEEL" a few times and wait until she calms down. She's pretty good at it, but we do have to say it a bunch of times which I'm hoping will lessen the more we stick with it. I'm hoping, too, that once we sign up for the training lessons we'll learn more effective ways of training. Right now I think she's just really young and easily distracted! But gosh! Watching her do her business outside feels like winning the lottery! You feel so accomplished and you just want to pat yourself on your back and tell yourself good job. And give yourself a treat. Which I do. Many, many treats.
Puppies are like babies - you show them something shiny, they're absolutely enthralled for 10 minutes, but then they hear a sound or see a cat and they lose focus. After her last walk of the night last night, hubby and I decided to try a little training. First off, Elphie is scared of hubby, probably because he's the disciplinarian, is stricter than I am and doesn't roll around on the floor with her during play time. But after expressing how much I want her to be our dog, hubby started to lighten up and began using high pitched voices and petting her more. She's still pretty scared of him, but I'm hoping with some perseverance she'll start to warm up to him. Anyway, last night we started doing a little training. We tried to get Elphie to sit on command. According to the book, the easiest way to teach 'sit' is to keep her on a leash and use a tasty nibblet as incentive. You get her interested in the treat and then slowly raise the treat above her nose/head and the moment her butt hits the ground you say 'SIT' and give her the treat. Then you praise her by petting her and saying, "Good sit". So hubby tried this twice and then I tried it twice. She didn't really get it. I think by that time she was tired and so over treats that she just didn't care. But the funny thing is, she just kinda sits anyway. When we put her leash on for the training exercise, she would just sit down, so hubby had to lift her hiney up in order to teach her how to sit! I guess that's good?
We're also trying to teach her how to heel on walks. When she gets really excited and starts running or jumping up and down or distracted by something, we pull on the leash and say "HEEL" a few times and wait until she calms down. She's pretty good at it, but we do have to say it a bunch of times which I'm hoping will lessen the more we stick with it. I'm hoping, too, that once we sign up for the training lessons we'll learn more effective ways of training. Right now I think she's just really young and easily distracted! But gosh! Watching her do her business outside feels like winning the lottery! You feel so accomplished and you just want to pat yourself on your back and tell yourself good job. And give yourself a treat. Which I do. Many, many treats.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Hurdles
It’s amazing how much Elphie has grown in only the few short weeks we’ve had her. Her ears are becoming perkier and her teeth are getting sharper. It actually hurts when she bites now! That’s definitely something we need to train her NOT to do, though. She’s getting a lot more energy, too, which I haven’t decided is a good thing or a bad thing. I try to play with her as much as I can, but I’m an old woman and after 10 minutes of rolling a tennis ball across the floor I’m pretty pooped.
One of the hurdles we’re overcoming is the whole housebreaking hurdle. Our situation isn’t ideal as we both are out of the house for 10+ hours a day, so crate training was kind of out of the question. If we crate trained without a dog walker (this would cost a good chunk of change per week if we had one) she would still go in her crate and would be sitting in it all day, which would be counterproductive. Instead, we decided to pick up an exercise pen and set it up in our living room. Inside we put her crate, some wee-wee pads and a water bowl. This allows her to step out of her crate to relieve herself and have the opportunity to keep her area clean. With a little bit more room to move around, she’s also able to play with her toys outside of her bed, too. It’s a pretty good set-up if you ask me. It’s like she has her own room.
I never thought I’d get so excited over a dog peeing outside. It took us a little while to catch on, but we both realized that Elphie likes to do her business on grass. With no grass in the immediate vicinity of our place, with only a concrete patio, we got so frustrated and didn’t understand why she would just sit there and stare at us when we put her out. We then paid attention and noticed that she cooperated when we took her out front of our building where there was grass. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn! Pee! Unfortunately that’s incredibly inconvenient. Luckily hubby did a little internet surfing and came across a company within the Southern California area that sells potty boxes. It’s pretty much a wood box with a liner on the bottom and you can add sod and grass patches. Perfecto! They make custom boxes, too, so I can email them and have them make one to our custom dimensions. This will be so much better than taking her out front at 10:00 every night before bed. And when she gets older she’ll be able to hold it a lot longer and then maybe we will start the crate training method. Right now, though, this is easier for all of us.
Now if only she’ll start to do #2 on command…
One of the hurdles we’re overcoming is the whole housebreaking hurdle. Our situation isn’t ideal as we both are out of the house for 10+ hours a day, so crate training was kind of out of the question. If we crate trained without a dog walker (this would cost a good chunk of change per week if we had one) she would still go in her crate and would be sitting in it all day, which would be counterproductive. Instead, we decided to pick up an exercise pen and set it up in our living room. Inside we put her crate, some wee-wee pads and a water bowl. This allows her to step out of her crate to relieve herself and have the opportunity to keep her area clean. With a little bit more room to move around, she’s also able to play with her toys outside of her bed, too. It’s a pretty good set-up if you ask me. It’s like she has her own room.
I never thought I’d get so excited over a dog peeing outside. It took us a little while to catch on, but we both realized that Elphie likes to do her business on grass. With no grass in the immediate vicinity of our place, with only a concrete patio, we got so frustrated and didn’t understand why she would just sit there and stare at us when we put her out. We then paid attention and noticed that she cooperated when we took her out front of our building where there was grass. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn! Pee! Unfortunately that’s incredibly inconvenient. Luckily hubby did a little internet surfing and came across a company within the Southern California area that sells potty boxes. It’s pretty much a wood box with a liner on the bottom and you can add sod and grass patches. Perfecto! They make custom boxes, too, so I can email them and have them make one to our custom dimensions. This will be so much better than taking her out front at 10:00 every night before bed. And when she gets older she’ll be able to hold it a lot longer and then maybe we will start the crate training method. Right now, though, this is easier for all of us.
Now if only she’ll start to do #2 on command…
Friday, July 23, 2010
First off, I'd like to give a big shout out to my two followers. Hi two followers!! Thanks for reading along! I'll try to continue to entertain :)
I'm starting to see Elphie's personality shine through. I noticed that she really loves people and gets excited to see someone new. If she had a tail to wag, she'd be able to propeller herself to the moon! I took her for a short walk this morning and we ran into a very nice woman who was walking her dog. Elphie got extremely excited and started jumping all over her, who in turn got really excited and starting speaking a completely different language to Elphie in a high pitched voice. The entire time I was having an imaginary conversation in my head, telling the woman I hope she wasn't saying anything I didn't want to hear. Watch Elphie start responding to Hebrew or Arabic quicker than to English (we live in a highly populated Jewish community). That would be my luck. I do enjoy - and am grateful for - the socialization with the neighbors, though. It's nice to be able to have something to talk about with complete strangers. Having a dog to walk also gets me out of the house, too, which is something I really need to do more often. I tend to suffer from cabin fever so it's nice to break up the monotony of work to home, home to work. And I'm sure before I know it we'll be bringing her to parks, on car rides and on camping trips. How exciting!
I'm starting to see Elphie's personality shine through. I noticed that she really loves people and gets excited to see someone new. If she had a tail to wag, she'd be able to propeller herself to the moon! I took her for a short walk this morning and we ran into a very nice woman who was walking her dog. Elphie got extremely excited and started jumping all over her, who in turn got really excited and starting speaking a completely different language to Elphie in a high pitched voice. The entire time I was having an imaginary conversation in my head, telling the woman I hope she wasn't saying anything I didn't want to hear. Watch Elphie start responding to Hebrew or Arabic quicker than to English (we live in a highly populated Jewish community). That would be my luck. I do enjoy - and am grateful for - the socialization with the neighbors, though. It's nice to be able to have something to talk about with complete strangers. Having a dog to walk also gets me out of the house, too, which is something I really need to do more often. I tend to suffer from cabin fever so it's nice to break up the monotony of work to home, home to work. And I'm sure before I know it we'll be bringing her to parks, on car rides and on camping trips. How exciting!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Training
I think we're going to sign Elphie up for some training sessions at good 'ol Petco. I used to work at Petco (ah, what fond memories...) so I know their training sessions are pretty reputable. Their prices and times are reasonable, too, which doesn't hurt.
None of the dogs in my life were ever formally trained. We just never thought to go through an official class, probably because we just didn't want to spend the money. So my family just kinda trained our dogs how we could. As long as they did their business outside and sat down when we asked we were happy campers. And honestly that's really all I'm interested in for Elphie, too. I just want her to be able to sit, stay and come when she's called. Oh, and go to the bathroom outside. That's a big one!
There is one trick Elphie does know how to do...she knows how to fall asleep in my lap on command. Now that's talent!
None of the dogs in my life were ever formally trained. We just never thought to go through an official class, probably because we just didn't want to spend the money. So my family just kinda trained our dogs how we could. As long as they did their business outside and sat down when we asked we were happy campers. And honestly that's really all I'm interested in for Elphie, too. I just want her to be able to sit, stay and come when she's called. Oh, and go to the bathroom outside. That's a big one!
There is one trick Elphie does know how to do...she knows how to fall asleep in my lap on command. Now that's talent!
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| "Now, Elphie, SLEEP! Good girl!" |
If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!
Have you ever tried bartering with your dog? You know...you tell her that if she does something for you, you'll do something for her? And then you get so frustrated when she doesn't cooperate, and you have no idea why she's not cooperating, because, come on, that deal you made with her is a really good one? Because that treat is mighty tasty and that belly rub is nothing to sneeze at, especially because you give excellent belly rubs (just ask your cat)? Come on...admit it! We've all done it! Especially when you're exhausted. Like me.
According to the book that I'm reading, puppies like routine. If you wake them up, take them out and feed them at the same time every day, they'll learn that everything happens on a schedule. Because I'm mold able and believe everything I read, I started a routine. Monday through Friday I get up at 6:30, put her out, clean up any mess she's made throughout the night (which is sometimes a big one), bring her back in, feed her, play with her, put her back in her den, take a shower and get dressed, take her for a walk, clean up any mess she's made between the time I bring her back in and take her for a walk (which usually consists of a chewed up wee-wee pad), and finally put her back in her den so I can go to work. Sheesh. I'm tired just thinking about it!
This book has been helpful, though. It's good to read something specifically dedicated to your dog. They might as well have titled it, "To Monkeerulz, With Love, Elphie <3" At least I'm able to understand a little bit about what goes on in that puppy head of hers!
It's not such an awful thing, getting up early, but it does hurt a bit when I see hubby sleeping soundly when the alarm goes off. But I just remember that setting a routine will (hopefully) make the whole house-breaking bit easier and quicker. Operative word here being 'hopefully'. I've also decided to make the hubby stick to the same routine I've created. Partly because I don't want to confuse the pup with a different schedule, but mostly because misery loves company and I want him to be exhausted, too :)
According to the book that I'm reading, puppies like routine. If you wake them up, take them out and feed them at the same time every day, they'll learn that everything happens on a schedule. Because I'm mold able and believe everything I read, I started a routine. Monday through Friday I get up at 6:30, put her out, clean up any mess she's made throughout the night (which is sometimes a big one), bring her back in, feed her, play with her, put her back in her den, take a shower and get dressed, take her for a walk, clean up any mess she's made between the time I bring her back in and take her for a walk (which usually consists of a chewed up wee-wee pad), and finally put her back in her den so I can go to work. Sheesh. I'm tired just thinking about it!
It's not such an awful thing, getting up early, but it does hurt a bit when I see hubby sleeping soundly when the alarm goes off. But I just remember that setting a routine will (hopefully) make the whole house-breaking bit easier and quicker. Operative word here being 'hopefully'. I've also decided to make the hubby stick to the same routine I've created. Partly because I don't want to confuse the pup with a different schedule, but mostly because misery loves company and I want him to be exhausted, too :)
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Elphie
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| Elphie on her second day home. |
Meet Elphie, an 11 week old Boston Terrier puppy. Her hobbies include sniffing, snoring, snorting, farting, and gliding across wood flooring. She also enjoys tormenting cats – specifically my cats, Nessa and Boq. Is it wrong that I get a kick out of watching her chase them up the stairs? Even though they’re both bigger than her and could probably pin her to the floor if they wanted, they both dart out of sight, scared silly. It’s also pretty fun watching them sliding across the wood floor, too.
I have to admit that Elphie became part of the family by impulse. I mean, I thought about getting a dog, and both my husband and I talked briefly about it, but it wasn’t anything discussed in length. But one day two weekends ago there we were – perusing the puppies on display in the mall – and suddenly I started to think how incredibly adorable these little puddles of fur were and my heart just sank. That’s when I realized…I wanted a dog.
And what’s the point of getting a dog if you’re not going to get a puppy? Puppies are adorable and playful and they fall asleep in your lap! Who wouldn’t want that? I guess it didn’t dawn on me that puppy=baby and baby=time, patience and wee-wee pads. Lots of wee-wee pads.
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