Buffy’s Life Serial

No theme for today’s post, just some random bits of puppy life.

This morning Buffy officially got over the time change (which I’d been LOVING…somehow going to bed at 11 and getting up at 6:30 was so much better than going to bed at 10 and getting up at 5:30) and woke up at 5:45 today, with a nice little puddle in her crate when I got there. I still can’t tell why/when this peeing is happening! Is it that she just can’t hold it one second longer? This seems a bit unlikely, because as soon as I get in there and pick her up she stops peeing (if she was at the time).  Is it because she’s so excited she doesn’t remember to hold it at every second and a bit sneaks out? This seems likely, but why is she getting so excited in the minute or two it takes me to get into the room and get her out of the crate that she pees a whole puddle worth of pee?  Le Sigh.  Though I should just be very happy that she obviously gets the whole idea of house training at the moment, and is almost exclusively peeing outside!

I’m currently trying to think of how I can get buffy to let me know she needs to pee. Currently, she’s just going in her pee pen (no more newspapers or puppy pads in there) and either sniffing around like she’s about to pee (at which point I rush her out to the front of our house) or sits quietly and looks at me from inside her pen, at which point I rush her outside as well! But we don’t actually want to keep a 2×1 foot pen in our living room indefinitely to serve as a pee button for us, so I’m thinking of this plan: laminate a large piece of paper that says “My name is Buffy and I need to PEE!!!”. Place it on the floor in the pee pen. When she sits on it, take her straight out. When she sits somewhere else, move her to the mat and then take her straight out. When she sniffs, tell her to sit on the mat, then take her straight out. Then get rid of the pen and just have the mat?

This morning in the park we saw a dead rat. It was horrific. I don’t know how it died (they’re doing some renovations in the park so it probably got flushed out of a nice hiding spot, and then…well, there was blood, I saw that before I ran away!) but as soon as I saw it I was sure Buffy would be totally interested in this and she’d want to eat it/play with it/make me throw up…but she didn’t even notice it!

On Sunday we went to our second obedience class and it was a lot more reassuring than the first…still obviously doing tons of stuff wrong, but this time it felt more like I had a handle on what we were doing wrong and we were trying to deal with it. Also, this one wasn’t just for puppies, so it made me realize…this might be hard but how much harder would it be with a rescue dog!  And whenever I see parents with an tantruming toddler, I think – how much harder would this be with a baby!  And then I feel better. Schadenfreude, thou art the friend of the new puppy owner.

Tales (and tails) of a bad puppy-mommy

First day of puppy class was a bit terrifying, for both Buffy and me! And the moral of the story is…I’m doing everything wrong!

Well, not everything.

But a lot of things.

By the time we got to the class, poor Buffy was already quite nervous and trembling, which always completely melts my heart and makes me want to protect her at all costs. Once inside, while the other dogs slept on their owners or whined and wiggled and tried to get free to explore, poor Buffy just trembled and tried to dig as far inside my lap as possible. I made soothing noises to her, and found out that I was not meant to do that at all…if she is nervous, I should ignore it rather than giving her attention, which is basically saying “it’s ok you’re nervous”. Whoops #1!

First we did puppy inspections, during which I got to feel very superior for having such a well-behaved puppy who let me touch and pick up her feet and explore her ears and stomach without problems, unlike most of the other puppies in the group. This was obviously the last time I felt confident of my puppy-mommying skills! Because next, we started the introductions.  Immediately I found that I wasn’t supposed to say ‘No!’ when Buffy does something I don’t like. I did know this…but I was doing it anyway because it was very hard not to, and sometimes I just wanted her to stop! But no more of that. Whoops #2.

All of us humans, plus our puppies (there were five puppies there, a 10 wk old beagle, a tiny 8 week old jack russell who could fit in your hand, Buffy, a Staffordshire Bull terrier boy (the only boy) who was also 13 weeks but about 2.5 times Buffy’s size, and a lab puppy who was only 9 weeks old but already three times as big as Buffy!) got down into a circle on the ground, put our puppies in front of us, and let them meet each other carefully. Well, the other puppies met each other. Buffy tried to hide in my lap again! A couple of times one of the bigger puppies came over, but she was terrified of their big sniffy noses and excited bobbing heads.  I have to say I did feel like quite the puppy-mommy failure…one thing seems clear from the books I’ve read and the instructor at the class last night, as well as pure common sense: a badly trained dog is the owner’s fault, and all behavior is training.

Eventually Buffy did end up doing a bit better and getting curious about her new surroundings and her fellow fourlegs, but just in time for the introducing section of the night to be over. Next, we practiced “Come!” I was quite surprised at how hard it was to get her attention. It seemed like once she realized I wanted her, she came, but it took a good long while for her notice I was clapping and saying her name and looking for her!  And of course, stage mother that I obviously am, I was really cranky that all the other dogs (except the tiny 8 week old) were better at it than she was!

At this point we started working on Stand (which was getting our puppies comfortable being restrained, and trusting us), which Buffy did pretty well with. But then we started working on walking.

There I was, thinking that at least she did ok with walking…but apparently I’ve been doing it all wrong! I’m meant to shorten the lead, and if she stops I shouldn’t turn back and encourage her but should rather stop myself whilst leaning forward, and then as soon as she creates some slack in the lead by moving toward me, praise and call her and start moving forward again. Similar action if she pulls forward – I just pivot, and then put myself in front and do the same thing.

So this all sounds simple enough but like with everything when it comes to training my puppy, it is NOT simple. First of all, I’m completely lost when it comes to figuring out whether there’s officially TENSION in the lead or if she’s definitely created slack. I can’t quite tell the right difference! Sometiems she releases the slack for a second only to pull again away from me…am I supposed to start walking them and drag/pull her along and praise? No, that obviously doesn’t seem right. Then sometimes she creates slack by going sideways rather than straight back, but she’s still not interested in moving forward…I guess my major problem is it doesn’t seem to be EITHER tension OR forward motion but rather lots of possible non-forward motion that I’m not sure what to do with.

Probably my most frustrating moment in the class was when I tried to explain to the instructors that I didn’t understand what I was supposed to be doing and they didn’t understand my questions. I couldn’t make them see (the closest thing to a relevant response I got was ‘try not to think so much’, which, with me, is almost a constant issue so they managed to give theoretically useful advice (if I could ever manage to follow it) without any understanding of what I was asking). In fact I still don’t understand what I’m supposed to be doing, and this morning when we went on our walk, it was utterly confusing for both Buffy and me. After walking in several pivot circles trying to walk backwards when she pulled, and after stopping mid step several times while I waited for her to start moving forward, only to have her then move sideways and wrap her very short leash around my legs…eventually I just gave up because I wanted to get home, and let her pull.  *is bad puppy mommy!*

But, I have another chance. A glutton for punishment, I’m going to another puppy training class on sunday morning. This one at least is outside, so there will be space to demonstrate my utter confusion about the proper walking procedure, and our new friend the Staffordshire Bull Terrier will be there too, along with his very nice Daddies (buffy and I rode home on the buss with them). So here’s hoping I’m not a totally lost cause…