Puppytron seems happier

I am so proud of the puppytron. Crate training has been improving slowly but surely. Today was such proof that we’re on the right path with our dog.

Today, Jared and I took Rhys for a short walk around the neighborhood. Then, we locked him in his crate, fed him dinner, and went out for about an hour and a half. When we got home, there was no whining! He was in his crate, happy to see us but not crying or whimpering.

Big step! So we were able to let him out and spend time with him right away instead of waiting for him to calm down.

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Some days go like this

Unbeknown to me, the kitten escapes her confines (the office) and scurries into the living room. The dog, barking and growling runs after her. I have to follow him, to make sure he doesn’t hurt her and/or mark something. Now the kitten is inaccessible in some tiny crevice.

The dog and I return to the other room to get some peace. A few minutes later, there’s a loud crash. I’d like to ignore it, but that’s not responsible, right? So, I discover she’s knocked a potted plant onto the floor. There’s dirt everywhere. The dog is barking and trying to catch the kitten again.

I’m attempting to clean up the spilled soil and keep the dog quiet. The kitten jumps onto the couch to seek solace with Angela, our crotchety old cat. Now there’s a cat fight and the dog is nowhere to be found.

Oh! There he is behind the easy chair. What’s that? He marked the chair! In two seconds of mayhem. Thanks Rhys.

So now I grab the dog, leash him up, attach the leash to my belt loop and spray down his pee with some vinegar. Still there are two growling cats. Still the dog is trying to chase the kitten, pulling hard trying to get away from me.

Finally I get the soil back into the pot and the dog and I are quietly sitting in the office again. The kitten is still loose and maybe Angela has disemboweled her. I don’t know.

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Outsmarting the Puppytron

At first, Rhys would sit everywhere but the crate: his former bed, an empty mesh bag, the kitten’s scratching pad. All of these seemed more attractive than his warm and cozy crate. I would turn around and see him sitting on a sock in the middle of the empty room, and I would think, “Really? This is more comfortable than your big, plush bed?” So, thank you Rhys for giving us yet another reason to keep our dirty socks off the floor.

However, once we got our floors cleaned, he still wasn’t hanging out in his crate. Instead he would stand at Jared’s or my feet, eyes lighting up every time we looked at him. This is one needy dog. That’s when the idea-bolt struck: put the crate where he spends his time. It seems really obvious now, but it took some time.

So now his crate is under the desk and he could not be happier. He spends a lot of time in there when we’re not directly interacting with him. Initially, I thought he wouldn’t like it, but now I think he enjoys the hum of the computer and the roof over his head. Also now I have a footrest!

I didn’t want to rush Rhys, so it was a few days until the next step: locking him in his crate while feeding him. Up until now, the door to the crate had always been open. When I tried to crate train him in August, I rushed the process and came home to a pile of sawdust from his wooden crate. The poor guy gets very anxious when locked up, but he can overcome it.

As you can see, food is the ultimate distraction for this guy. It’s been about a week, and he’s progressed to where I stay with him and keep the crate locked for a couple minutes after he’s done eating. There is no whining or pawing at the door. Progress!

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How to search Google like a pro

Sometimes, instead of searching the Internet carefully, I talk to it instead. I think this may be because I spend a lot of time alone. For instance, when I discovered Rhys had marked our couch as his very own, I searched Google with

How do I get dog pee out of my couch?

Then, later, when I got frustrated at trying to clean my couch I searched Google with

My couch is covered in piss!

Which did return some amusing although useless results.

Sure, I could’ve gone with the old way of doing things

couch remove dog pee

But it’s not as much fun.

And, in case you were wondering, the best way to remove dog pee from anything is with a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water. And now you know.

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google dog pee urine rhys jenkins how i roll who i am

Rhys meets crate; enjoys included Kong

Things are moving quickly so far. Rhys has his very own sanctuary in our home. Wire crate, soft bedding, water bowl, multiple toys, and he’s spending quite a bit of time there on his own.

He definitely had incentive: we stuffed his Kong with treats and tossed it in there. I don’t think he looked back until he got the Kong stuck to his lower jaw. Poor guy. I mentioned that they are prone to death by eating. I am sadly not joking about that one.

Later, I experimented with his anxiety level today by closing the crate and leaving the room for a couple of minutes. He did pretty well: no whining, no crying, no panicking.

The key for this to work is to let him go at his own pace. We have committed the next six months to training him. I want to look back in June and know that this is all worth it.

In addition to crate training, we are using the supervision method. This means that whenever Rhys is not in his crate, we are watching him very closely to ensure that he doesn’t do one of the many things we are trying to get him to forget: marking in the house (ugh), jumping onto the furniture, eating out of the litter box (again, ugh), and eating inappropriate foods/objects.

The supervision method is next to impossible with tiny dogs, though. I am getting really annoyed at all the websites I’ve found that simply say “watch your dog.” Seriously? It seems like he can drop a puddle in the blink of an eye. Oh well, I’m trying my best. I’m going to pretend like the little puddle I found today doesn’t count, it being the first day and all.

By the way … that puddle? I never would’ve found it if it weren’t for Stink-Finder Super Brite. I joke not about it’s name. It’s a UV light and it’s fun to play CSI and search the house … until you find something.

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Thanks ... I guess.

@jackassletters:

@niaree:

Photo: First victory: on the way home from the pet store. So far so good. tumblr.com/xhb4kok…

Pretty tasty looking.

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Introducing the real Rhys "Puppytron" Jenkins

I love Rhys “Puppytron” Jenkins very much. That’s why I’m going to devote some space to him here. He’s an 18-month-old mixed breed: chihuahua and miniature pinscher. As such, he weighs less than six pounds, but he has bark and personality enough to take on the big dogs. Literally.

I’ll confess to being one of those dog owners that had no idea what they were getting into. I normally over-research every change in my life, so the fact that our dog is a huge daily challenge definitely took me by surprise.

According to the extra-over-research I’ve done since we got him in August, his personality comes mostly from his min pin genes. In other words, he’s stubborn, defiant, loud, whiny, (next to) impossible to housetrain, and prone to eating himself to death.

None of that bothers me much except the part about him being impossible to housetrain. How did I miss this in my hours and hours of Internet and library research? Seriously. How. Did. I. Miss. This?

Not missing it now. There are, as Jared urges me to call them, “presents” from Rhys quite frequently hiding all over our home. We have been at our wits’ end and tonight we decided to crack down on the bundle of cuteness. Because we cannot put this dog out of our home. He is our responsibility and we love him.

Hopefully, a series of posts will follow on the success of crate training a dog who supposedly can’t unlearn anything. A dog who is terrified of being alone and who will cry for hours and hours until he gets his way. I wish I were exaggerating this part about the hours and hours. Because I’m not. Because I’ve tried to outlast him and it usually ends badly.

Here’s a photo of him sitting quietly, being his cute, loving self. Wish us all luck please.

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