The workday routine is working out OK for Ruby. Not sure how great it is for me, but I’ll survive. I get up at 4:30am and take her for a walk. With the ‘freezing fog’ (really???) the last two days, it’s been more like a 1-block shuffle than a 1-block walk. At any rate, Ruby is getting better at walking on my right, does her business on the walk, and knows immediately when we’ve turned the corner toward home. She continues to cross in front of me and instead of pulling her back, which just confuses her, I’ve started bumping into her, gently, of course. She yelps like I’ve stomped on her every time. So I feel that someday soon that little brain of hers will make the connection that she never gets bumped when she walks NEXT to me.
We both went home at lunch to let her out Monday, and she was very glad to see us. Had peed in her kennel but only on the pillow I had left for her. So she’s out of luck there. No more bedding until there’s an A+ on The Potty Report. She hadn’t finished her food when we had to get back to work, so I set her food and water contraption in her kennel with her. When Kevin let her out after work, he texted me that he thought she had peed in her kennel, but it might just be water. He had to leave and I would be home shortly anyway.
Oh, it was water. I believe in her boredom in the afternoon, Ruby learned to swim. The bowl was almost completely dry and what was left was filthy. I’ve watched enough CSI to know exactly how it happened. The spatter pattern indicated that the water was removed from the bowl using a digging motion, at high velocity. The splashing sent water up the wall, and out all sides of the kennel. This would also explain how her belly was soaking wet. Bath time again.
I had to laugh as I was cleaning it up. She must have had a great time.
Our evenings have been pretty relaxed this week without kids to run back and forth to activities. We’ve been watching a movie in the theater room which is the only place dogs are allowed on the couch. So we sit Sophie (who gets a full third of the couch), Kevin, me, and then wiggly Ruby. Wiggly Ruby quickly gives way to Slug Ruby. I’m enjoying her being a lapdog for as long as it lasts.
I’m exhausted. A couple of days of sleeping through the night were nice, but we’re back to early-morning yipping and whining. Part of it is good, because Ruby seems to be telling me she has to use the facilities. The kennel was dry when the yipping started at 2:30 am, she emptied her bladder immediately when I got her outside, but then was ready for playtime. I put her right back in her kennel and went back to bed, listening to her whine for almost a full hour before she finally gave up.
I know that part of her issue is being alone, so I experimented Monday night with letting her sleep in the bedroom, confined to the travel kennel we use for Sophie. I set it up and put a piece of rigid plastic under it in case she wet the bed. This is one of those nylon collapsible kennels with mesh sides so she can see out. We were playing in the bedroom for a few minutes and I just kept throwing her toys in it so she would get used to it. She didn’t seem to mind it…in theory.
When it was time to settle in for the night and I zipped her into it, she went bananas. Scratching and clawing and whining, even though I was sitting right next to her, clearly visible. I wasn’t calming her, so thought ‘I’ll try getting in bed and she’ll see she can still see me and she’ll be fine.’ Ruby wasn’t buying that either. She threw herself against the side of the kennel, toppling it over on its side, and realized immediately she could travel that way. Three giant pounces and she had crashed into bed, rolling the kennel like a stock car out of control. I’m sure I wasn’t helping by sitting on the bed laughing hysterically. But it was comical, like a fun park ride for dogs.
Experiment failed, she slept downstairs in her big kennel again.
What I deduced from that experiment is that it isn’t JUST being around me, it is also the containment factor. She doesn’t like to be locked up. Not even if I put the baby gate across the dining room doorway and give her the whole room. But I can’t leave her out, even though she loves her big fluffy bed. She’s still having too many inappropriate bathroom events. The hard plastic floor of the kennel is really uninviting, but if I put bedding or pillows in her kennel with her, she pees on them. Somehow have to find a different balance for bedtime. Or maybe it’s just puppiness and she’ll adapt to the routine.
Soon. Because if I don’t get some sleep, someone is going to find me curled up under my desk at work. That will be bad.
I was laughing just reading about the travel carrier episode! Stick to you guns on the kennel issue...it is hard for both of you at first but will be well worth it in the end. We had never crate trained before Max (thought it was too harsh)...We will NEVER go back to NOT crate training a dog. So much better and we leave the door to his kennel open all the time and sometimes we turn around and he is gone, he has gone to his kennel to sleep. It will become their "safe zone" just as a cave is to the wild canines.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps..Keep those blogs coming..