I wish that I could stop feeling so tired so much of the time. I wrote another post about our puppy a few days ago, but didn't have the energy or drive to proof read and post it. I may later, if I can get out of this gloomy mood. We'll see. The post was about how we have had project after project to do in relation to our new puppy.
The reason why I'm so tired, though, is because our new puppy, Shasta, has returned to his habit of not sleeping through the night. My husband, Ray, just recently built him a box out of Masonite for him to sleep in. He was sleeping in a card board box, but that wasn't working after awhile because he was beginning to eat the cardboard. I'm wondering if the Masonite bottom is not as comfortable for him as the cardboard was. He is restless at night and sometimes doesn't get to sleep until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.
It really does seem that Shasta is mostly potty trained, yet he did pee in the house Yesterday. He tried to hide it under the table this time, which is a good sign because it shows that he is genuinely ashamed and knows he did wrong.
I didn't think that we had a problem with this thing called "Submissive Peeing", which is when a dog pees when the "Pack Leader" either arrives home, yells at him or her or is too rough with him or her. I didn't recognize this because apparently, even though I've probably been spending more time with Shasta than Ray has, I'm not the one that Shasta considers the Pack Leader. Though Shasta is difficult for either of us to control, he does appear to respond more at times to Ray's deeper, more masculine and authoritative voice, than to my more feminine, higher pitched voice. He doesn't pee when we arrive home, nor even when we yell at him, but Ray thinks he does it when he plays too rough with him. Apparently, he gets too excited and it scares him a little.
When I play with him and get him all excited by throwing the ball across the floor, Shasta handles this fine and doesn't pee, so I disregarded the "too excited" idea, yet I'm not the trigger. Ray is. Apparently, I'm not the pack leader according to Shasta. Figures. Our previous dog, Casper, favored me, but I guess I can't always be the one chosen. Oh well.
Interestingly, I thought I was going to write about feeling discouraged, but I wrote about the dog again instead. One day, I hope to be past all this puppy stuff and actually have a dog. Maybe one day I'll actually have a life again. Oh well.
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8 comments:
Puppies are supposed to bring happiness. Aren't they? :)
Yeh! They are, and I'm guessing that he eventually will. Not all puppies are this hard. He is getting better. It's just that I'm not as young as I used to be and high energy can make a low energy person feel tired.
The puppy has been making it difficult to blog since he wants attention and walks so much of the time, but I have been visiting on a few other blogs. You can find some of my more interesting comments on Z's blog at...
The Hippy Lobby Never Seems to Die
Here's a trick I've used whenever I've had a puppy, Lista. I use a wind up clock because you can hear the tick, and wrap it in a towel, then place it in the puppy's bed. The sound of the ticking clock should calm him. Puppy's snuggle against their mothers and miss the beating of their heart. Just remember to wind the clock every night.
Hope it helps.
Gayle,
Well, actually the puppy has been sleeping through the night again, but thanks. We used the clock ticking trick when we first got him and it did seem to help.
There are so many factors involved and making sure he goes to sleep. Don't feed him too late, make sure he gets some evening exercise and make sure he goes to the bathroom, both kinds.
Since this one has a habit of spilling his water at times, we sometimes take his water away from him for temporary periods of time, so making sure that he has had a drink of water before being put down to bed becomes another important factor. He's been restless at times for no other reason than he's thirsty.
The real problem, though, is that he is a high energy dog that needs lots of exercise and attention. I am encouraged by the fact that puppies do tend to be worse in this department than adult dogs even when you have a high energy breed.
I think that we do have the potty training tackled finally, but our dog also has other discipline problems. We are scheduled for an obedience training class in April. I wish it was sooner, but that's just the way it is. At least he is finally enrolled.
I hate to even bring it up, but....
how about a kitten instead? :)
Not all dogs are hard, BB. We had a very good one. The one that died last June was a real jewel of a pet. We still miss him at times.
Ray likes dogs better than cats and I really think that I do too. Ray also won't consider the idea of getting a second dog as a play mate because he says that it just doubles all the expenses.
BTW, I'm glad you dropped by because believe it or not, we've been talking about you on Z's Blog at the link that I left you above and how we would love to hear your input on the subject. It's got like 60 comments on it now, but you don't have to start at the top.
Thanks. That was a long thread and interesting. So I made comment #61. I don't do dogs, I don't do drugs...but I do do opinions. :)
Oh, come on, BB,
Dogs are neat! Shasta is the first really hard one I've ever owned and even so, I feel quite convinced that he will eventually get past his puppiness and become a very good pet and friend.
He is potty trained, BTW. I don't think he peed inside the house more than once since I wrote this post. Interestingly, it has not been uncommon in my life for things to resolve themselves rather quickly once the problem has been correctly identified. Because of this, it's not at all uncommon for something that I've just written about and complained about to go away almost as soon as I've made the complaint.
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