Dog Day Afternoons

Spring after a long winter is great. Spring after a long winter, with a puppy, is bliss!

I don’t know why I didn’t get a puppy sooner than this. Probably because the thought of potty training one more thing made me go all jelly in the brain. I didn’t know that dogs pick up on the potty training stuff lots easier than headstrong kids! Frito has been a great addition to our family. The kids take her out to do her business in the morning, afternoon, and night, and run around with her at the in between times.

So cute!

She only has two potty training weaknesses: Hubby’s office and Sassy’s room. I don’t know why, but if either of their doors are open, she’ll go in and poop somewhere in their rooms. ???

The only other hiccup we’ve had in this area is when Hubby tries to take her out to pee. She just sits there like a stone, looking up at him without moving a step. I asked our puppy kindergarten teacher why this would be, and she suggested that Hubby must have freaked out once when she had an accident (and yes, I recall it was over a steaming pile of puppy poo all over our bills…) and now she thinks he got upset because she went to the bathroom, so she won’t go at all, anywhere, when he’s around. We’re trying to make amends by having hubby give her lots of puppy treats.

Puppyhood has been a learning experience for all of us.

The kids have been good with her, if not a little smothering. Naturalist is training her how to moonwalk, Sassy is training her to be an attack dog by molesting her with socks on her hands (I’m trying so hard to nip this, but Sassy is persistent) and Golfer is worried that Frito doesn’t love him as much as everyone else. (My kids wouldn’t be mine, after all, without a little neurosis in the mix).

Tomorrow, I think we’ll take her four wheeling again at the local reservoir…she loves it almost as much as she loves chicken.