Quirks and Quarks
1) Waking up REALLY freaking early. Harriet is a morning person. I, however, am not. At all. This is causing some tension in our relationship, as Mommy likes to sleep past 6:00am on weekends, and finds work challenging after a 5:30am wake-up call (note: Mommy is supposed to be working RIGHT now). Harriet sleeps in her crate in our kitchen, with the drapes drawn, and a blanket draped over her crate, but as soon as the sun peaks out, she's barking and ready to play. If I bring her up into the much darker bedroom, she's sitting on my side of the bed, poking me with her nose, crying, barking, and ready to play. If I let her up on the bed, she sits on my head (no...I'm not joking).  Any tips on how to get my darling little girl to sleep even a teeny tiny little bit later? Because, I never thought I'd consider 7:00am sleeping in.2) Peeing on her dog bed. When we first got Harriet we had bought a big, comfy, Kirkland dog bed from Costco. Being first time dog owners, in retrospect, we now realize this was...well...stupid. Harriet peed on it within the first 2 days and the dog bed, despite how much we cleaned it, became a glorified pee pad, and ultimately, went in the trash. Fast forward four months, and I was at Costco and saw those big, comfy dog beds and thought, "she's a trained now...she won't pee on that!"...boy...was I WRONG.  Said bed was not on the floor for 30 seconds, when Miss H walked over and peed all over it, the first time she's pottied in the house in a couple of months! I guess the association is still there from the initial bed, but I'm wondering if this will be a forever behavior, if its just because it was the same type of bed...Anyway...nothing earth shattering, but a couple of issues that have me kind of baffled. |
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| Dogs are morning people. They want up to pee and play with the sun or right before. Usually you can train them to pee and go back to bed for an hour or so, but it takes time. Helps having a mate who IS a morning person to handle the chores. The both of you cannot sleep in. (here DH is the morning person, but Jack defeats my sleeping in as he barks as soon as he realizes it's time to go outside, when he gets outside, when he comes in, when he realizes he's going to be fed. It is his morning ritual.....sigh....otherwise he is pretty quiet) Yeah, the dog bed now means pee. It's a fancy pee pad. You might want to use vinyl mats for her bed for awhile......even the gel pads if you can swing one. And train her not to pee on it........they are easy to clean if she is slow on the message. After a few months or at worst, a year, you can try a dog bed on the vinyl. Puppy bladders are still small and the brain is still being programed. Make sure you have clear precise training........and patience, lots of patience. |
| Caitlyn went about four days last week getting up at 4AM!!! We treated her like a toddler and kept her up a little longer, lengthened her walk a bit in the evenings and played with her a little more. That did the trick. now she's waking up at her normal 5:30AM, seconds before the alarm, so it's all good. Vance |
Before we got Mady, we pulled up and put away the Persian carpet in our living room for obvious reasons. At about 6 months old, probably 3 months since she had an accident in the house, Mady was very very good with the house training, we thought it would be safe to put it down again. We put it down, as soon as it was down, Mady walked over, sniffed it, and peed on it.    We got mad at her and immediately took her outside. That was the last accident she had indoors.As for sleeping, I don't know what to say, it's usually me waking up Mady in the morning, but that's truly only been in the past 10 months or so, she used to get up earlier. Now that I think of it, after we stopped crating her at night, she would wake me up by coming over to my side and huffing and puffing in my face. But it was never earlier than 6:30 I don't think. Now, I normally get up around 7:15, and like I mentioned, I'm the one waking her up. On weekends I can usually get away with 8:30 or so. On the other hand, I tend to stay up late, and Mady stays up with me (snoozing, but it's not the same as feet up in the air deep sleep). Do you (and hence Harriet) go to bed early? |
| I've been super lucky with Kenny. He sleeps all night and generally is still laying down at 830. I dont want to leave him in there too long so we take him out as he stretches haha. As far as the dog bed, I was happy we held off. Kenny likes the cold bare floors...i even put towels in his crate and he pushes it off to the side and sleeps on the plastic bottom. He's constantly on the kitchen or bathroom tile so until he decides otherwise, no bed for him haha. Sorry you're not having as much luck but I'm sure it will pass! I almost always play a lot with him at about 10-10:30 and he's zonked by 11. |
| Rob that's funny you say that about the towel. We do that and Caitlyn does the same thing. She's even gotten to where she drags the towel out of the crate now. She's done that the last four times when I've put the towel in there during the evening. We've found her towl three rooms down the hall! How's that for a hint... Vance |
Actually...my favorite was when i walked in and it was pushed under the divider in his crate!!! He was smart enough to push it away and leave one little corner in case he wanted it back for his head.....hilarious  |
| My dogs have all adapted to our schedule. During the week, they wake up with us while we get ready for work. On the weekends, if we sleep until noon, they sleep until noon-- or at least stay quiet and out of trouble until noon. The few occasions where we do wake up before 10 on the weekend, the dogs look at us like we're insane for getting up that early. Lazy dogs are the best. |
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