Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Well holy shit…

Remember that puppy who hated his crate so much that he cried and barked when we shoved him inside, and threw himself against the door so hard that we had strap it shut with a bungee cord? Yep, this is the same puppy, just chilling in his crate. After a year of intense hatred, Forest has suddenly decided that he likes his crate and will randomly crawl inside for a few minutes at a time. I swear, sometimes I think that dog is just messing with us.

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Recovering Addicts

I swear, Nick and I never thought we’d get addicted. We were just looking for something to relieve the stress of raising a puppy, help us relax after a long day at work. So we thought we’d try it for a few weeks, no big deal right?  Twelve months and a couple thousand bucks later, we've finally realized the truth… we’re addicted to doggy day care.

It started out innocently enough. Baby Forest had a tiny bladder and had to go potty like a zillion times a day. After one week of scampering home every two hours to let him out, we gave up and took him to doggy day care (which is conveniently run by his vet). Suddenly we had our lives back. While we were at work, the doggy day care folks let him play with other dogs, took him out to potty every few hours, and lavished him with love and attention. Sure, it was more money spent on the dog instead of a bar tab, and one of us had to drop him off in the morning while the other had to pick him up after work, but we assured each other that doggy day care was only a temporary solution.

A few weeks turned into a few months and we continued to take Forest to doggy day care. Addicts can always come up with excuses for not quitting.  In the beginning, we reasoned that it would be healthy for Forest to interact with different people and animals while he was still young so he wouldn’t turn into a weird canine who couldn’t play well with others and tried to eat cats. When the weather got cold and nasty, we argued that doggy day care was a perfect way for Forest to get exercise, negating the need for an evening walk. When Spring came around, we were convinced that we just couldn’t find time in our hectic work and travel schedules for a mid-day puppy break. 

So our temporary solution has eventually transformed into the main problem. Doggy day care is not on the way to either of our offices, so we spend more time stuck in traffic. When Nick’s out of town, I’m responsible for both drop-off and pick-up duty. And although it’s reasonable priced, a year of care adds up (raising a dog has turned out to be freaking expensive).

Luckily, it was Forest himself who started us on the road to recovery. The growing puppy finally mastered his bladder, so we stopped locking Forest in his crate at night. When it was time for bed, we just shut the bedroom door and Forest slept on the floor (usually curled up on my discarded clothing).  Except for that unpleasant incident when I tried to sleep in on a Saturday, Forest behaved quite well. Next, we experimented with leaving him home alone for a few hours in the bedroom, sans crate, and we always came home to dry carpets. Then slowly, starting with just one or two days a week, we locked Forest in his crate while we were at work (finally discarding the trusty bungee cord). We felt horrible about putting him in a box all day, and soon progressed to our current practice of just shutting him in the bedroom (although we suspect that he probably spends half his day on the bed).

Someday, we’d love to give Forest free-rein of the whole house while we’re gone, but we’re not quite to that comfort level yet.  Doggy day care isn’t completely out of our system, and may always be a small part of our routine, but I have hope. Every addict does.

Recovering Addicts

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Sometimes the puppy forgets to put his head in his bed.

Uh, Forest, you're doing it wrong.

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Doggy Bed

Well crap, I haven't posted in two weeks. Sorry folks, but it's been freaking busy around here. Nick has a new work schedule so I'm now Forest's personal chauffer. Every morning I drop the puppy off at doggy day-care and then pick him up after work. Add that to my daily commute and I'm spending 1.5 to 2 hours in the car every weekday.  Yes, yuck. I've considered not taking Forest to doggy day-care at all, but that would mean locking him up in a crate for over 10 hours a day. Not only does that sound like a very unpleasant day for the puppy, it's also unlikely he'll actually last that long (as I unfortunately experienced when I tried to sleep in one weekend).

Further complicating our situation:

a) Things are a tad hectic at the office right now so I need to work longer hours.

b) The typical summer social events have quickly filled up our schedule; consequently, we don't have a completely free weekend until mid-August.  

c) I'm maintaining three To Do lists. I have the normal Things To Do list, like buy more dog food. Then there's the Things That Really Should Have Been Done Already list, such as register and implant an identity chip for Forest.  And finally the Holy Shit I Can't Believe We Still Haven't Done This list, which luckily doesn't contain any doggy related items (but contains other embarrassing tasks like "buy wedding gifts for the three weddings we've already attend this year." I promise people, those gifts are coming. Not to throw out lame excuses but we've been out of town a lot lately and I easily lose track of time. But yes, I understand that we still suck.)

Fortunately, even with all of this other crap going on in our lives, we still find time to spoil the puppy :) For example, we finally bought Forest his own bed.

Yay, puppy bed!

Forest loves to prop his head up on pillows and blankets, so we picked a bed with rigid sides.

Before we bought the bed, I made sure it was washer-friendly. Some dog beds just have a removable cover or can't be washed at all, but we can stick this entire bed into the washer AND dryer.

I've already washed it once to get all the pet store cooties off it, but if Forest keeps slobbering all over his toys in bed, it's going to need another wash soon.

Doesn't Forest look like a sad, old dog in this photo? He really needed a haircut, and it might have been a little too early for him…

"Um, it's 5:30 in the morning. Give the camera a rest, crazy lady."

Doggy Bed

Success!

As I've mentioned before, crate training Forest has basically been hell. That puppy could make the most dreadful noises when we put him in his crate, whimpering and moaning and barking, like we were burying him alive or beating him with a hammer. Lord knows what the neighbors thought we were doing. It was all very sad, but also extremely annoying.

Before we got Forest, Nick and I read books and articles about raising a puppy (none of which mentioned how vile puppy poop could smell, all you new or soon-to-be puppy owners out there beware). They all said you could train your dog to go into his cage when you said a specific command, so we choose the obvious phrase "Crate". Since the very first day we brought Forest home, we've repeated the word "Crate" every single time we've put him in his cage (which may seem really simple but can be tricky to remember when you're shoving a crying, shaking puppy thru a cage door while praying that he doesn't pee on you).

It was months before Forest would venture into the crate by himself, and then usually it was only for a few seconds so he could snag the treats we kept leaving in there for him. But he slowly started to realize that :

a) the crate was not a backdoor to hell that would eat him alive

b) he was going in the crate whether he liked it or not, and wasn't coming out until he was good and quiet

c) most importantly, we would always give him a treat every time

Eventually he stopped whining when we put him in his cage. A little while after that, he started walking towards the crate when we said the command and only needed a little push to cover the last few steps. And finally, he officially gave up and started walking completely into his cage when we said the word "Crate".

Now if you watched Forest you would never know he ever had a crate phobia. We don't even have to say the word "Crate" any more. If I'm standing next to the cage and take out a treat, Forest quickly scampers into the crate and lies down. I'm convinced that we never would have won this battle if we didn't bribe him with sugary treats every time, but at this point I really don't care. I'll try to keep this in mind next time I see some parents buying their kids fast food.

Success!

The Crate Escape

Yesterday's blog post was getting kinda long, so I decided to post this crate story separately.

Rewind to the first week we owned Forest. Before I discovered the fantastic world of doggy day care, Forest spent 8am to 5pm at home in his crate, which forced Nick and I to rush back to the house a couple times a day to let him out (little puppy = little bladder).

One day I let Forest out in the morning, put him in his crate and sped back to work. A few hours later, I get a call from Nick who asks, “So how sure are you that you closed his crate door?" which is just a smartass question because of course I’m going to say, well hell, I’m pretty sure. Nick proceeds to tell me about how he came home and found the crate door wide open, a couple shoes with canine slobber on them, some nibbled chair legs and a very happy puppy in the kitchen. At the time I was positive that I had closed the crate door, but then I started thinking, well hell, I was in a hurry to get back to work, maybe I thought I closed the door but didn’t secure the latch properly? I spent the next 5 minutes worrying and apologizing while Nick hunted thru the house in search of hidden puppy poop (we’re still surprised Forest didn’t take a dump behind a dresser or in a closet).

The very next day, I left work to let Forest out, walked in the front door and called Nick. “So guess who I just found in the kitchen?” (next to destroyed chew toy and puddle of piss). Yep, the puppy was out again. Thankfully this time Nick was the last person to “close” the crate door so my claim of not being an irresponsible, ditzy dog owner was validated (which I reminded Nick of, oh, just a couple of times).

Our hypothesis is that Forest hates being left alone in his crate so much that he scratches, bites and jumps on the crate door hard enough and long enough to jimmy the latch loose. Then it’s party time for puppy.

So we’ve come up with the following solution:

The bungee cord may not be aesthetically pleasing, but it gets the job done.

This puppy ain’t going nowhere.

The Crate Escape

Forest’s Crate

In case some of you non-dog people out there don’t know this, a dog crate is basically a cage. But no one refers to it as a cage, no, manufactures, pet stores and dog owners all refer to it as a crate (maybe that makes everyone feel better about locking up a sweet doggy in a cage). Some crates have solid, plastic sides with a wire door so the dog can only see out the front of the crate (thus you’re basically putting your dog in an expensive box). Most of the dog owners I know use a crate made entirely of metal or plastic wires/bars, so that’s what we use too. I think this type of crate makes it easier for us to keep an eye on Forest, plus it lets the puppy see what’s going on around him (the crate’s in our bedroom).

So why would we own a crate you ask? Why not just stick Forest in the yard or a closet while we’re away? Besides keeping the puppy out of trouble and out of our shit, a crate is supposed to make potty training much easier (it’s sometimes referred to as “crate training”). Apparently, dogs try not to potty where they sleep. Some say it’s a natural instinct, and some say dogs learn this as puppies when they soil their sleeping area and see their mom clean up after them by eating the poop (I really hope this second explanation is just a rumor, cause if not, damn, mommy dogs are hard-core). If you set up a divider in the crate so the puppy has just enough room to lie down and turn around, theoretically he won’t be able to potty anywhere without lying in it, so he’ll try harder to hold it.

We've put up a divider so Forest only has access to half of the crate.

According to everyone we’ve talked to and everything we’ve read, dogs are supposed to love their crates and like spending time in there. Well of course, Forest is not a fan of his crate. In fact, for the first two months we owned him, Forest HATED his crate and raised hell every single time we put him in there. He would whine, bark, whimper and moan (yes, dogs can moan, or at least this one can, and it sounds creepily human like) all while chewing on or scratching at the crate’s bars, or trying to stick his head and paws between the bars.

If we stayed in the room with the puppy and he could see both of us at all times, eventually Forest would quiet down and go to sleep. If, heaven forbid, we left the room, that dang puppy wouldn’t shut up for hours. Seriously, we timed him. We’d be in the garage or out in the yard and could still hear Forest yelping.

On top of all that, the puppy would never go into his crate willingly so we always had to gently shove him in there. We tried making his crate more appealing by filling it with treats and toys, but Forest would stand outside the crate door and stretch as much as he could to get to the item without actually entering the crate. We tried feeding him in there once but Forest seemed to prefer not eating over getting in the crate. Every time he put so much as an ear in the crate, Nick and I would give him praise like he just learned to talk or something, but everything seemed to fail.

Luckily, we’ve seen some improvement during the past month. For example, Forest no longer whines when we put him in his crate for the night (he doesn’t sleep in our bed with us). I think he knows its bedtime and we’re going to stay in the room with him, so he doesn’t freak out. Even if one or both of us leaves the room for a few minutes, Forest expects us to come right back so he doesn’t make a scene.

We’re still having a rough time leaving Forest alone for extended periods of time. I know dogs don’t have a great sense of time (they probably can’t tell the difference between 15 minutes and 5 hours) but I swear, if we leave Forest alone for awhile then that dog thinks we’re never ever coming back and he’s stuck in that damn cage forever.

Nick and I try to avoid letting Forest out of his crate when he’s whining or barking, kinda like how parents aren’t supposed to pick up a baby every time it cries. But sometimes that puppy just won’t shut up, so Nick and I have to stand in the hallway waiting for a pause in the madness so we can enter our own bedroom. It almost feels like a game to me (hopefully it doesn’t seem that way to Forest). I’ll stand in front of his crate, Forest will whine, I’ll leave the room, he’ll bark a little, pause, I’ll walk back in, he’ll whimper, out I go again. It’s a sad process, but eventually Forest will remain quiet (for a moment) when I stand in front of his crate so I can let him out. *Whew*, so much work.

I swear we’re coming back Forest!

Forest’s Crate