One week

A moment of oh so sweet silence

One week. I already feel like Rocket has been here forever. We've made a ridiculous amount of progress in just these last seven days. 

I can pet him where ever I choose! Well unless I choose his toes, because he doesn't like that... But if he's good I'll let him up to cuddle a few times a day and he just LOVES that. I can even pet his belly! He's learning to sit nicely if he wants some attention, rather then try out his impression of a kangaroo. He does lick a lot of we're working on the "I'll pet you when you stop licking me" thing. God does his breath stink. No matter of bones or brushing seems to help the smell. 

We had a little hiccup today after our walk in the woods. I left the dogs in the hall to wipe their feet. Generally Rock tends to stick to the trail - he's a bit of a princess and princesses don't get their royal feet dirty - but of course Callie had to pull her signature "Follow me into the mud!" move. I apologise to any owners whose dogs have fallen for Cal's irresistible charm and of course ended up completely covered in mud. She seems pretty determined to get every last dog filthy. Hence the need for a foot wipe before we entered my nicely cleaned apartment. I knew it was going to be an issue. He HATES his feet touched, unless your sneaky about it and pet his toes lightly when your cuddling. But I was determined. I grabbed the scruff of his neck so he couldn't bite me and got to work. I'm convinced my neighbours now think I'm abusive. LOTS of growling and snapping and then whimpering when he realized he had no choice but to let it happen. But eventually he did just that, let it happen. Clean paws, he got in the apartment and immediately demanded food. We're working on that too...

Follow me! Don't I look fun?!

We have another problem. He pees! Pees all the time! And I don't mean on walks - although after having girl dogs for the last year and a half I must say the whole lifting his legs on eevverything is a bit annoying. He pees in the apartment! I've narrowed down to a semi-full bladder and excitement or he's just messing with me because he's a jerk.Yesterday morning I woke up and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. When I left the bathroom I walked straight into a trail of pee, the length of the hallway. Deep breath, it's okay. As I went to get paper towels I step in more pee. Great. I go into the living room to tell him how I feel about walking in all this pee and bam! I walk in more pee. It was first thing in the morning, so I can understand a full bladder but I was up rather early and I take maybe ten minutes getting ready in the morning. He couldn't wait that long?! He was also rather excited and he's pee'd in excitement before but why pee when I'm in the other room and not when I first wake up!? He does it other times of day, sometimes only an hour or two after before out and sometimes without any form of excitement. The most annoying thing: he's sneaky about it! Like the bathroom thing, it's always in a different room and I always find it after the fact. 

Sorry about the gross factor here, but it's dogs, come on. My foster pup Bruiser used to always do these magical, stealthy poops. He'd somehow sneak out of the room and head to anywhere someone left the door open and poop in there. Always away from where we were, and he never took long enough for us to even notice he was gone. He could be outside for hours, poop seventeen times, but he seemed determined not to be fully house trained. And I rarely caught him in the act so it was hard to tell him it was wrong (I've never felt comfortable yelling at a dog way after the fact because it's hard to know if they understand why your so mad). After weeks of this smelly torture and complete lock down at the house a friend at the rescue told me to try the only thing that worked when her foster did the same thing. When you find the present left for you, don't get mad or at least take a minute to calm down. Then go grab your dog, sit them down beside the present, and calmly but sternly tell them you disapprove. I laughed at this idea but I was out of options. So next time Bruise did his ninja moves I walked him over, sat him down, and told him he was being inappropriate. After just a handful of times, no more sneaky poops! 

I made try this move with Rocket. If my neighbours don't already think I'm a crazy dog murderer after the feet wipe situation, their definitely going to avoid me after they hear me saying "Now Rocket, it's inappropriate to pee in house. I would appreciate if you didn't do this any more."

You do look fun! I'll follow you!