March 03, 2003
She doesn't know she's been bad, but I do.
Good thing she's so damned cute!
7:30 p.m.
If I had written a few hours earlier, I could have reported on what a fabulous day we had - and we did. It was a great day. Dusty played and pottied and slept and ate and I got lots of work done.
After Dusty's afternoon nap, I took her out of the crate. Dusty went to the door. So far, so good. I put on my polarfleece jacket, my coat, my scarf and my hat. Dusty squatted in front the door and went pee - right there on the rose-coloured carpet that, ironically, belonged to my first dog, Brandy.
So I took off my hat, my scarf, my coat and my polarfleece jacket and put the pup back into the crate. Then I cleaned up the mess.
The dog training books tell me that I should roll up a newspaper and hit myself in the forehead while repeating: "I will supervise the puppy. I will supervise the puppy." But damn, I didn't take my eyes off of her (so imagine my horror as I watched her mess on the carpet).
I checked the potty log (yes, I keep a potty log - it a bit obsessive, but it keeps me honest) and she had gone pee and poo just over two hours before. This was well within her window of bladder control.
The dog training books also tell me that dogs live 'in the moment' and they're not vindictive. She didn't do this to get under my skin or elicit a reaction. She simply couldn't hold it.
I don't think they're are any lessons to be learned here. To use a very, very bad pun: "Shit happens." Apparently, urine just happens too.
I took her out and she peed. I took her out an hour later and she peed. Maybe I'll just take her out more often and let her pee. After all, it's going to warm up very soon and 'going out' won't require 14 layers.
Speaking of 14 layers, it *was* quite cold today and, of course, I have cute puppy story to share:
During one of our breaks Dusty took a long drink of water, completely soaking her little schnauzer beard. I took her outside right after this. As we walked around the yard, I noticed that she was doing this strange thing with her head - rubbing her snout against her front lets. I reached down to see what was up and discovered that Dusty's beard had frozen into a solid mass!
Poor puppy! I hope it warms up soon!