HoneyBadger
YourWorstNightmare.
Member since 10/06 15979 total posts
Name:
BahBahBlackJeep
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Adventures in Puppy Parenthood...Lessons Learned.
It's been awhile so I figured it was time for an update! I'll warn you now, it's gonna be a long one so for the sake of reading ease and to appease my anal retentive personality I shall list and number the stories!!! 
Ok, here goes!
1. This installment starts back to the weekend. It's Saturday morning around 10am, Arnold and I had just gotten out of bed and I took him out back to do his business. Now we are currently in the process of finishing our project of fencing in the yard, fortunately, up until this moment, Arnold had NO IDEA he could technically get out of our yard. Well, this morning that all changed.
So we're outside and our back yard neighbor comes out with her dogs. Now she's been dying to have a play date and every chance she gets she talks to us about it and invites us over. Now I'm all for it, but until we get to the point of finishing the fence and installing a gate between our yards, I've been avoiding letting Arnie go over there b/c we both don't want him to realize he can get out and so when she brings this up I usually can talk my way out of it. Well this morning she comes up to our yard and long story short - we had our first play date. Great.
LESSON LEARNED: Now Arnold is WELL aware of the fact that he can get out of our yard. WONDERFUL.  This will SOON bite us in the Arse, just give it time.
2. It's now Sunday. My husband takes Arnold out for his morning routine and like clockwork he does his business and starts to play, which promptly turns into him making a "run for it". Oh goody. So after about 10 minutes of doing the backyard tango - DH goes toward Arnold, Arnold backs up. DH backs up to entice Arnold, Arnold comes forward. As I said, this went on for about 10 minutes until I came down and bribed him with a treat. All the while, said "back yard" neighbor is out in her yard, giggling. SWELL.
LESSON LEARNED: Yup, Arnold definitely knows he can get out and with this new found freedom, doesn't listen so well.
3. Still Sunday, we decide to take a ride to Petco. I got a coup in the mail for a free pound of dog treats from the dog bar. So while we're there, I say to myself, "self, this would be a great time to get Arnie's nails trimed!" so we go to the grooming booth. What a FIASCO!!! The twits who work there know NOTHING about dogs. It's sad, really. The girl takes my info down and tells me I can go pay while they get started. Well, I'm a new puppy mamma so I decide to stay and watch. THANK HEAVENS I DID!!! First she takes him to a grooming table that is literally about a foot from a German Shepard who is hooked to a wall hook via a leash. So immediately, Arnold and this other dog are intrigued and now Arnold is fidgeting and the Shepard is trying to sniff Arnold's tail. I said to the girl, he's not aggressive, to which she replies, "yeah, but we don't know about this dog" (meaning the Shepard). Um, OK then why the heck is this dog NEAR MINE??? So I said to the girl, "if you don't mind, maybe I could hold him, I see he's getting fidgetity, he'll stay still if I hold him." She says, "no, that's OK". To which she then decides to take him off the table and corner him against the wall to clip his nails. Now, I'm really starting to get nervous. I mean, she's going to scare him!! Before I can say anything, she's pinned him and is holding his leg, he's wiggling around and I swear to you, I thought she was gonna break his little leg. I immediately tell her, "Please stop, I don't think this is gonna work!" She says, well, what if you hold him? I am at my wits ends so I say, "Ok, bring him here She did, I held him for about 10 seconds and said, "Yeah, this isn't working, we'll stick to the vet clipping his nails" and left. Never mind while Arnie is freaking out, another dog being groomed gets spooked and jumps off the table he/she is being worked on causing them to be "hung" by their head. Note: the groomer of this dog not only drops the dog once while trying to get it back on the table instead of it hanging there choking itself, but drops this poor dog a second time!!! I felt so bad for that dog and it's unsuspecting owners. 
LESSON LEARNED: Do NOT take Arnold to Petco to be groomed EVER again. EVER.
Now you'd think that's the end. But no - there's MORE! 
4. So we finished up at Petco and head to the Kent Animal Shelter. One of Arnold's littermates was returned to the shelter and we were considering the option of adopting him. Long story short with this part - we put them together and while they basically did get along, we didn't feel comfortable with how they were playing, it was very rough. But there was another dog we were interested in, a boxer mix, female. So they say, oh they'll be a great team, she's VERY docile. Ok, great. Yeah, well, not so much!  Not only was she NOT docile, she was a bit aggressive. So much so that she launched poor Arnold into the fence of the pen, knocking him off his feet. She even growled at him. Of course, crazy, over protective puppy mamma mode kicks in and I'm ready to literally kick this dog and the people at the shelter b/c CLEARLY she's NOT docile. Why the FECK would you even go along with the notion of putting this dog (who they claim is a year old, when she looked well over two) in a pen with my little 5 month old puppy???? She's hurting my boy and I didn't like it ONE BIT!!!  Of course, I didn't hurt the dog or the volunteers but we did get the heck outta there! Needless to say, Arnold was very quiet on the drive home. I of course feel terrible!! We went from one horrible experience to another - ALL of which were essentially orchestrated by yours truly!!!
LESSON LEARNED: If we get Arnold a sibling (and not the human kind) it will most likely be a younger pup who's temperament is much friendlier than these two!!!
So the rest of Sunday was fine. He did his thing and called it a day/night.
5. Fast forward to today - early evening. DH and I are in the house, Arnold is outside. He seems to have gotten better about "escaping" so DH thinks we can let him out. Ok, we keep an eye on him and sure enough he's chillin in the yard. So, a few minutes go by and we realize neither of us has seen him b/c he comes in and out of the house, we keep the back door open. So the two of us jump up and run to the back yard, but there's my little man, right in our yard. Ok, great, no cause for alarm. Well, not quite! Out comes the former giggling, backyard neighbor. She says, "oh thank goodness you're here! Arnold was all the way over there (and she points to the neighbor's yard about 40 or so feet away from our property) making me nervous, but he went back to your yard he was really making me nervous." Oh goody. Thank you pushy neighbor who HAD to have that damn play date. Thank you for now enlightening my dog about the fact that there's NO FENCE in the back corner of our yard. THANK you so FREAKIN much!!!! Thankfully he did come back but OMG!!! Now of course, ultimately, I know it's really my fault b/c I should have just told her out right back on Saturday, that we did not want Arnold in her yard w/o being on a leash and before we could put up a fence and gate, so he wouldn't realize he could get out, but for the love of Pete, please don't act like you had no part in corrupting my pooch!!! Ugh.
LESSON LEARNED: 1. Yep, Arnold totally knows he can get out of the yard and his days of free roaming without us in the yard with him are OVER. Bummer. I liked watching him when he didn't think anyone was watching him. 2. We MUST finish fencing in the yard ASAP.
6. And now my last story... It takes place tonight... Just about an hour ago, I'm making DH's lunch for tomorrow. Arnold comes into the kitchen; for a split second I think, he's probably got to go out, but I just want to finish up so I bribe him with a piece of ham and try to finish up, well no dice, he starts to pee on our living room rug, so I run in, stop him physically, leash him and take him out the front door. He finishes peeing and we come in.
LESSON LEARNED: When Arnold gives you that look, TAKE HIM OUT.
Of course, now he's done doing his business and I'm ready to go in. Well, apparently, Arnold was not. Super LONG story short Arnold and I do the back yard tango. It's not fun. I have to go in the house, get a treat and bait him into coming close enough to me so that I can grab his collar. We did this dance for awhile too. All the while, I'm really starting to get angry. I finally am able to grab his collar at which point I drag him into the house, yell at him for not coming when I called him and sent him to bed - in HIS bed, NOT ours. Sleeping in our bed is a treat and if he's not going to behave, he can sleep in his (rather large and COMFORTABLE) shearling bed. I hope, I'm strong enough to see this "punishment" through. I love having him in the bed with us (which I might add, I NEVER thought I would say!!) but I want to make a point.
LESSON LEARNED: Yes, you can be INCREDIBLY angry with your dog (or any pet for that matter) all while LOVING him/her to pieces. Ironically, you deep down feel bad for reprimanding but know it was the right thing. But nonetheless, it sucks to reprimand your little one - be it human or not.
Geez... If I'm like this with a dog, what will I be like with a human child??
If you've made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
If you've made it this far and have decided to post a comment, I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to read this and post some of your own thoughts!! 
Message edited 4/22/2008 11:52:11 PM.
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