Visiting the Puppies

Week One

Week Three

Week Four

Ongoing

Sunday – Oct. 3, 1999
Monday – Oct. 4, 1999
Tuesday – Oct. 5, 1999
Wednesday – Oct. 6, 1999
Thursday – Oct. 7, 1999
Friday – Oct. 8, 1999
Saturday – Oct. 9, 1999

Picard falls in love . . . with the wrong person.
I yell "NO!," I shake her by the scruff the neck, I knock her down when she jumps on me, I roll her on her back and growl in her face. It sounds like abuse strung together like that, but it's not. Picard is just so damn headstrong and persistent. But, who has she fall in love with? You guessed it. Mary Ann has held her, cuddled her, slept with her curled to her bosom, but who does she persist in slobbering over? Me. It's kinda pissed off Mary Ann. I can't say I blame her. Pi was supposed to be "her" dog.

It's not that Picard doesn't like her, it's just that she's much more effusive toward me. Go figure. Maybe it's an alpha dog thing.

Pi seems to be settling in a little better. Less constant sniffing around the house. Better attention to the rules. She shows potential. We have a swinging baby gate across the galley doorway. It's easier to keep it closed when we're preparing their food – it keeps them from underfoot. Pi used to stand at the gate and jump. This morning, she sat very sedately while Mary Ann was in there. Maybe she'll get better as she matures.

We don't really see aggression in what would normally be trouble spots: she lets Mary Ann momentarily holder her back from her food with a brief "wait" command. We can put our hands in her bowl while she's eating. We can take it away from her and she tolerates it. It's just when Mary Ann doesn't let her get her way when she's excited that she bites. She makes a throat noise that I assume is growling, but it's not that snarly sound you expect.

She's incredibly stubborn. She's gotten it into her head that fallen leaves are good eats. She especially likes the crispy silver maples that fall in the yard. There aren't many, but she pick them up, chew then a bit, and then try to swallow. They make her gag. Now, you'd think that would be enough to be off-putting, but it's not. She keeps doing it. We tell her "No" when she picks them up and only about a quarter of the time will she drop them. Otherwise, I wrestle her on her back, open her mouth, and stick my fingers down there to pluck out the leaf. Not really nice since she's working her jaw and tongue and has those sharp little baby teeth.

Another instance was leash training. We're not expecting perfect heel work, but you'd think she'd at least walk. Nope. She travels a few feet to follow Woodie on leash and then she stops like a $2 mule and won't budge.

The puppy books are less than useful. They describe these blue-sky methods of training that only work with perfect puppies. In the "Mother Knows Best" book, Carol Lea Benjamin describes getting on your knees, holding your arms wide in front of the pup, and giving the "come" command. The puppy is supposed to run to you. Yeah, right.

I tried that with Pi, she looked at me like I was stupid: "What the hell's he doing. What's this 'come' stuff he's yelling. I'm outta here, I gotta find a new place on the rug to pee."

In all other aspects, today was a lazy day. Pi spent a good couple of hours sleeping on me as I sat on the sofa: eat hard, play hard, sleep hard.

I was playing with her ear, placing it in a upright position as she slept. A couple of times, when she woke up, it stood on its own for a few moments. Looked pretty cute. I don't think her ears will stand. Or, if they do, only one will. We took the tampons out of her ears and removed the tape that Linda put on. If the ears don't stand, no big deal. It has to be better than having her ears constantly bound.

Still not reliable, but learning
Today went pretty well. Mary Ann is continuing the dominance play: holding Picard with her hands under Pi's armpits and at arm's length, rolling her on her back, correcting her. Pi lets you hold her out with no trouble. She's a little tougher to roll on her back, but that's getting easier. She still protests some correction from Mary Ann with nips, but she says that's getting better as well.

She peed in the hall today, but then made up for it later that evening when she stopped playing and went to the back door. I let her out and she peed and pooped. Sometimes the urinations are courtesy pees. She squats and squeezes out a few drops. We don't give food rewards for housetraining behavior, so maybe she's doing it just for the "good girl" she gets. We do reward her with a piece of puppy chow kibble when she goes out, relieves herself, doesn't eat leaves, and comes in when prompted.

Going to bed is a two-person operation. We get Picard upstairs and I put her on the bed. Then, no matter how sleepy or tired she was a minute ago, she starts digging a nest and jumping around, biting at the covers. We don't allow biting or tugging on the covers. Ollie, when she was younger, used to chew them while we were sleeping, and we don't want a repeat of that. We tell her "No!," and she stops for a moment, only to get wound again. Now we're trying the quiet approach. We put her on the bed, and then in calm, low, voices, tell her to be calm. We pet her as she settles down. Between the two, that seems to be showing some result.

She still likes to put her head between the bars of the brass bed. She actually jumped through last night. Not a good thing. If she gets stuck, she could do herself an injury. We're letting her look through them from about six inches away, but she's not allowed to put her nose or head between the bars. I think it's a behavior that will eventually self-correct when she gets too big to fit between the bars.

Anyway, after she's on the bed, Mary Ann puts on her nightgown and does her toilette [yeah, my own spelling, but that's so it's not confused with toilet]. I try to keep things calm. Woodie has the run of the bedroom. She can either get on the bed or take her place on the chaise. She usually picks the chaise because Pi can't hector her there.

Mary Ann comes back and then it's my turn to prepare for bed. After I'm all set, I usually come back in and collect Woodie. By that time, Mary Ann's got Pi settled down and snuggled in. I carry Woodie into my bedroom.

Pi gets fussy once or twice a night and Mary Ann takes her out. When Pi comes back, she usually heads into my room to see me and Woodie. Mary Ann does her best to keep Pi from running in, but puppies move fast.

One giant leap . . .
The humanizing process is proceeding slowly, but surely. Mary Ann's been putting Picard in her downstairs crate for five or ten minutes at a time. She whines a little and lets out a bark sometimes, but she's tolerating it: no digging, no bounding. I'll work more on it next week. The big test will come on Oct. 15 – I have a dentist appointment before Mary Ann gets home from work.

I had to crate Picard twice. She decided she would get tough with me: she put her mouth on me to show how tough she was. Zero tolerance. She got yelled at, put on her back, and put in her crate to calm down. It's like sending a child to her room when she throws a tantrum – the room isn't punishment, separation from the family is. We hope to take Pi around our nieces and nephew, but she cannot be allowed to get mouthy with anyone. Maybe we'll try her over my folks for a visit.

We found she likes to play with the telephone cord and socks. These may be carryovers from her puppyhood. So many habits to fix . . .

Woodie's showing some change, and we don't like it, but we don't know how to explain it all to her. Woodie hears a lot of "No!s" thrown around and thinks some apply to her. We tell her how good she is and make a fuss over her, but it must be tough from her point of view, when we take them out, for instance: "Why are you yelling 'NO,' I'm just out her peeing like I'm supposed to?"

I'll be watching them in the dining room – they prefer it since the carpeting in there gives them traction – and Wood will stand in front of me, staring at my face. I wish she could talk to tell me what she wants. Instead, she'll stand up and lean on me. When she does that, Pi figures she has to establish dominance and the cycle continues. I've taken to protecting Woodie from Pi when I'm making nice with Wood. Although Woodie is still not taking any guff from Pi, she seems to be getting tired of the whole process. I suspect that she'll give it up eventually and let Pi take her place in the pack. Neither Mary Ann nor I want that, but I don't know of how we can prevent it besides treating Woodie as having a place ahead of Pi.

We did more limits setting with Pi in the backyard. I walked down the drive with my coffee can of nickels and scared her back each time she passed the boundary line. She can come down the steps to the concrete pad and go anywhere straight from there, but she can't come off sideways on the driveway side since her driveway boundary is a foot or two west of the pad. It took her a couple of times to learn, but she figured out how to watch me down the drive without violating the driveway boundary: she runs up the steps and then looks around the corner from the top of the stairs. Smart dog . . . sometimes. We'll work on that some more. Maybe I'll even use the same method so she won't go back in the yard beyond the front of the garage. That will be tougher, since Woodie can go there. Maybe we can teach Woodie, too. But, you know what they say about old dogs.

Woodie finally had enough last night and went to sit on the love seat. I went over to her to show her some affection. Pi, of course, had to come over and see what was up. She still hasn't learned how to jump up onto the sofa or love seat . . . until then. She was so anxious to hector Woodie that she jumped onto the loveseat. That surprised me and Mary Ann. Pi'd tried to jump onto the sofa earlier when Woodie was on there and missed by about a foot. It's only a matter of time now.

She still is clumsy going up and down stairs. In fact, there are times when she stops – in either direction – and has to be coaxed. She's such a big dog that it's hard to conceptualize she's still a puppy.

We reached another milestone: she fell asleep on her own without being put in a nap position. We can usually tell when Pi's tired, so we'll retire to the sofa and put her between us, or hold her until she decides to nap. Usually, she'll keep going – sniffing, playing, chewing – until she gets cranky. Last night, I was sitting on the dining room floor holding her puppy bone while she chewed [it's not as sissy as it sounds, it teaches her that I'm in charge of the toys and what she can chew, her bone, and what she can't, my hand]. She stopped after a while and curled up between my outspread legs and went to sleep. She even laid there after I got up and came back.

Going to bed is becoming less of a challenge, but still strange. She'll be hard asleep – limp when you pick her up. But, take her out prior to bedtime and then take her to bed, and she gets feisty: gotta make a nest, gotta drag covers with my teeth. It's the latter we discourage. She gets frustrated by that and sometimes takes it out on Mary Ann. More correction and some resentment on her part. But, it's getting better each evening. Maybe after she's fixed, she'll get a little calmer. You know how those ovaries lead to hysteria – why else would the call it a hysterectomy in humans?

'Til 4 a.m.!
About 4 a.m., I heard Mary Ann get up with Picard and that led me to making a pit stop myself. Woodie thought it was time to get up, but I disabused her of that notion.

When we all got up an hour later, Mary Ann told me that Pi'd slept through until then. I'd assumed Mary Ann had gotten up once before and I hadn't awakened. Gee, if Pi could last another 90 minutes, we'd be getting up at our regular time. Maybe I'll work on that. I'm thinking of using the crate when it's my turn next week. Put her in at bedtime and see if she'll get through the night. We'll have to limit her before bedtime water. She usually falls asleep about 8 or so and then tanks up when we wake her up to go out for the last time before bed. If we change the routine so that she drinks no later than 7, maybe she'll get through. Getting up in the middle of the night is something we have to change. We'll see how she does. I don't like using the crate at night. I guess I'll have to risk a bed wetting or two.

That reminds me. I have to get to Hastings Home Health Care and see if they have a waterproof sheet for a queen-size mattress. That will go between the bed pad and the fitted sheet. Also have to make sure we have plenty of clean sheets and a spare blanket. Oh, the joys.

I'm not sure if this is the latest and best file. It seems to me I wrote more about today in a file, but I can't find it.

Good Dog, Bad Dog
For all of the hell Pi put Mary Ann through yesterday, Mary Ann reported that Picard was a nice as pie today: only one mild episode of rebelliousness and most of the day being good. It's as bad as having a two-year-old.

I've noticed that Woodie is giving up the dominance fights. It's not that she's becoming submissive to Picard, it's like she doesn't think it's worth the effort. Picard will take a toy away, and Woodie will let her; Pi will jump on Woodie's back and Woodie just tolerates it. Both Mary Ann and I don't like it, but there's not much we can do. We occasionally knock Pi off of Woodie when she's getting too insufferable, but it doesn't solve the situation.

Picard has formed an attachment for me. I'm the one she goes to when she comes running into the room. I didn't foster any of this, in fact, I've been the one more aggressive in correcting her. Maybe that's it: she's trying to curry favor with the alpha dog. I can tell Mary Ann is disappointed; Pi was to be her "girl."

It got bothersome last night. We went to bed and Picard barked and whined when I left the bedroom. She doesn't want me out of her sight. That's got to be fixed. It's nice to have a bond, but not something obnoxious.

Pi is recognizing her name and the "come" command, although she's far from reliable with either. One good sign last night was that she stopped playing and went to the back door. I took her out and she peed and pooped. She's very close to housetrained. Not that we'd let her wander around without a care from us, but she doesn't need watched every second.

Some of the other tasks on which we're working include keeping her out of the microwave cart and away from the phone cord when someone's on it.

I'm afraid that the latex and plush toys may have to go away. She plays well with the latex toys, but becomes obsessed with pulling torn pieces off of some of them. We had trouble with all three other dogs eating pieces of latex toys. In fact, that's why we got latex instead of vinyl – the vinyl would be eaten and cause much more gastric distress. We've already had to take up most of the stuffed or fake lamb's wool toys. She plays tug with them, but them eventually starts to "pluck" them with her teeth. We don't need her eating capock or fuzz. We'll be going to the pet store on Saturday and I'll see about some smaller Kongs and maybe a tug rope. She likes to play tug [yes, I know that trainers recommend against it, but all of our dogs have liked it and none of them have gotten any bad behaviors from it], and maybe a rope will be more robust when it comes to chewing and "plucking."

Non-Fatal Attraction
Oh, boy. Pi has a real fixation on me. She had Mary Ann up a lot last night because I wasn't in the room. When she got up this morning, she tried to jump into my bed twice and ended up falling on her back both times [for a puppy whose back is now higher than Woodie's, I'm surprise that she can't jump half a well. Woodie just springs up into the tall bed, but Pi can't even manage my lower bed]. When I came up with them this morning after Mary Ann had finished her shower and hair, I put Pi on Mary Ann's bed. I left the room and Pi barked and whined because I'd left. Even after Mary Ann settled her down, she would still go off again when I passed the bedroom door. I ended up shutting the door to calm her down. That's not a solution, just a fix. I'm not encouraging this hero worship, but maybe my play with her is causing it.

I use my head and roll her over onto her side or back. Then, I snuffle her belly and neck and occassionally growl when she resists. If she tolerates it, I let her roll over on her stomach, but stay on all fours over her. She'll then lick my face and nuzzle. Sometimes, she'll even settle down to sleep if she's tired.

Mary Ann isn't as comfortable with it. I don't know if it because Picard doesn't take that kind of domineering play from Mary Ann as well as from me, or whether it's just not something Mary Ann is comfortable with.

Maybe we'll stop by my folks after the pet store on Saturday. We'll drop Woodie off for her biweekly bath [she could use it, her gum surgery left her looking kind of scruffy] and then take the Pi to the pet store for supplies. That should also give us time for a quick visit to my parents. I'll have to warn them that she have to correct her vigorously if she pulls any stuff on them.

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