Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Bang, bang, banging my head.


What I need to know is why the puppy will not wet on newspaper but will happily wet on bedding. I don't get it.

I moved not-so-small-anymore dog from his toddler bed into his big boy bed. I decided to make the move after he was dry in his crate for several days and it seemed like a good time to move him into a bigger crate with more amenities. Those amenities being a padded floor and his own carpet. I knew better than to put traditional bedding in the crate as experience as taught me that destroys such trifles, I have also read that puppies don't really appreciate bedding and are are more likely to turn it into confetti than cuddle up with it.

I thought I was being smart. I was not. His first volley against the tyranny traditional comfortable environment was to continually roll up the carpet at the front of the crate. I was beginning to wonder where I could buy carpet tape or if what I really wanted to do was super glue it down - a faster and cheaper option as I have super glue on site all ready.

This was for not because apparently before he rolled up his carpet he peed on it. Thoroughly.

So. I removed the remnant and threw it away, I didn't have time for the pain or the carpet cleaning regiment. I put paper back down in the box and shockingly, he hasn't wet on it.  This was the moment I discovered another reason for the carpet - the crate floor makes noise, creaks and pops and clicks when it is not padded. Terrific.

He also won't let me cover the crate with fabric ( he pulls it through the bars and rips and tears it). The crate is a proper cage vs. the egg crate style box he has used since I brought him home, a solid block while his new crate is open on all sides. I like that its more open and he can see his environment and be a part of it  and that's great, but it makes me cold and since he doesn't know how to use bedding,  there isn't anything  to offer some protection from the chill air.

If he were like Daisy, and able to for years, sleep happily and DRY in a cocoon of bedding in the crate and than later, sleep in the room on the futon, I could wrap him in a flannel sheet and he would be fine, but he can't do that yet and he thus far is not happy about being in the room by himself - something he communicates by wetting the floor if he's alone for more than five minutes and prior to wetting the floor he scratches the hell out of the door - no baby gate for him because he learned how to knock it down while still a very small puppy.

I don't know what I did to him to make him this disturbed.

One of my friends at work suggested after hearing me castigate myself for the dogs slow training progress, that I just don't come home for lunch anymore. The thinking being that what I don't know won't make me crazy.  I think I'm going to try it out - I come home religiously, we wets the bed, I don't come home, he wets the bed. He's going to wet the bed if I come home or not. Sigh.

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