Ha! Post #101! I Feel Like An Established Blogger Now

Lordy, what a week it’s been… Drama, drama everywhere but not a drop to… drink? I hate it when allusions go wrong.

Anyway, there has been a new addition to my furry little family. Unfortunately, right now I don’t have any pictures to post because I am lazy, and as it turns out, having a digital camera does not necessarily mean that pictures get into the computer all by themselves. But suffice it to say she is adorable as she is related to me and I am adorable. I think it’s one of those if A=B and B=C then A=C situations. Although, if I remember correctly, that may have been a fallacy… I don’t know, I almost failed out of my logic class, so I’m just going to stop this example now.

Ellie (and she actually is a she this time) is quite the little spitfire and about as opposite from Jack as puppily possible. She looks as though she may be at least partially a whippet, but it’s hard to know for certain as I got her from the Humane Society. She did come with a free bag of food though, so that was rather thrilling. She’s also taken pretty well to her kennel, though my living room has now been rather overtaken by dog housing projects. Every night is like the WWE Puppy Smackdown in my living room, and I’m sure my downstairs neighbors are wondering how I managed to fit a dancing elephant in my apartment—the doorways are not that wide.

I am beginning to get a little downtrodden over the housebreaking process. I didn’t realize how lucky I was with Jack. He came into my life already circling by the door when he needed to go out, and we had very few inside accidents compared to Project Ellie. I’m not sure how long it’s supposed to take for a dog to “get it”, but it’s only been a few days so I’m staying the course. The frustrating part is that we’ll go outside for 10 or 15 minutes and she’ll do her business and then get distracted by things that smell delicious, then we go back inside and she finds a nice carpet spot and goes again. Then I beat her with hangers and drag her back outside. (This is a slight exaggeration… but only slight…) I ring the bell every time we go out, so hopefully in the next week or so she’ll start to make the connection that going inside is a baaad thing, and when we want to go potty we go ring the bell, go outside, and then get kisses and belly rubs. It doesn’t seem like that much of a leap of logic. But we’ll see. Her brain is in fact still quite small.

So, I have a fun girls weekend planned which will include large quantities of ice cream, wine, and shopping. It’s time to get back out there, no point in dwelling and becoming a morose hermit. There are about a million fish in the sea, and one of them has my name written on it with permanent marker. And the rest of them can at least buy me drinks.

Comments

[Brittany]

Permanent marker can actually rub off (think the x on your hand pre-wristband)... so perhaps a tatooed fish.

Have fun this weekend, and let the girls know, any time they have to go potty, they gotta ring the bell!

[Kendra]

I love the bell for potty training! Only problem for us was our cat caught on and would ring it when he wanted to go out, too. Except, he is an indoor cat.

[AC]

I have to tell you that after my divorce and after a quite a few months (a couple of years) of moping and then tentatively trying a few dates and then kind of liking one or two of them but finding they were disguised but total losers, I threw up my hands and said to God, "okay, fine. I quit. I can't do this myself. If I'm supposed to find someone, You send them! Until then, I'll just get a few free meals out of them."

Two days later, my now husband asked me out for dinner. I thought "free meal #1! - yea!" By the end of the evening, I was thinking "hmmmm." At the end of the second date, I was thinking "HMMMMM!" 2 1/2 months later we were married. That was 16 years ago. So I'm thinking YOU are thinking "just right" about the drinks.

I love the bell thing too!

[Dawn]

YES. Wine and ice cream and getting out there are all excellent things for you right now. If I was there, I'd totally join you for that, because, dude that sounds like an awesome weekend.

Also, and this is totally belated, but, whatever: count yourself lucky that Colby figured out what he wanted, that you weren't it, and told you about it. If he had dragged it out for another 6 months or a year being uncertain about things, it would have been much worse. Now, you can commence with the getting on with your life!

[Steph.]

Now that's the attitude! And you are commended for coming around so quickly and feeling ready to have some fun again! YAY for you!!! And, congrats on the new pooch too!

[sophie]

I had a very problematic and stubborn puppy as my first one ever to housebreak. I finally bought a wonderful book, "How to Housebreak Your Dog in Seven Days." It has schedules for you to follow. I had to get up about 30 minutes earlier each day, but it worked (though in a few more than seven days). Pictures soon, okay?

[Shelley]

Okay, so now I'm thinking, maybe I should get a bell for my 22 month old daughter that is trying to potty train...hmmmm....

Yes~ I say a girls weekend out is exactly what you need. We'll compare notes next week:)

[M]

Hahah, my little girl does the same thing. Ace only needs to be shown something 2-3 times before he catches on. He started ringing the bell in less than 3 days and NEVER peed in his crate.

She peed in the same spot THREE times tonight!! I put her in her crate (without any padding/towel because it's ALL in the wash) and the little squirt peed in the crate and soaked herself. If she wasn't so cute I would've strangled her! That little girl pees on EVERYTHING!!!

BTW, after I broke up with Tom, I didn't bother dating for 2 years either. Haha, but after breaking up with Trav, I went on a dating frenzy. Hee hee. You just never know with those sorts of things. Hang in there. Some days that's a victory in and of itself.

[Nancy]

Sorry about the breakup.

I met my Dh when I had sworn off men and was very happy w. my life without one. Then he came along and I was done for.

Have a great weekend.

[Anonymous G]

"and the rest of them can at least buy me drinks"
HhahahaaahahaaahhhHHaaahahaaaa!!!!
:-)

[Becky]

Yeah, my second dog was/is a nightmare when it comes to potty training compared to my first dog. Daschunds already have smaller bladders than most breeds and then his injury has exacerbated it, which is why I had wood laminate installed. What kills me is how we'll go outside, and then he'll come inside to pee. Grrr.... Kenneling doesn't work b/c I've caught him comfotably laying in his own urine too many times.

[Jass]

Heheh

Oy I want to see the picture of that cute Ellie!

[Jonathan]

Good luck with training the dog. As much as pacifists would recoil with shock and horror, brutality really is the fastest way with animals. All the dogs we had when I was young had their noses rubbed in their wee - they learned damn fast.

My parents have two Newfoundlands - the trick with them was to make them sleep in a cage when they were small. Dogs never dirty their own bed unless they are ill or can't hold it.