Sometimes, I just don’t know what to do with this dog. She gets in all sorts of trouble if you’re aren’t constantly watching, and I’m at a loss what to do to keep her busy and quiet for a while if I need to, you know, not be paying 100% attention to her.
Sure, she spends a good amount of time wrestling with the cat, until he finally gives up and dashes over one of the doggie gates to safety. That burns up some energy. But then she’s on the prowl for something to do. No, she doesn’t want to play with her dozens of doggie toys. Why would she, when she can pluck a magazine from the end table, and snatch a book off my to-be-read stack—and it’s a big stack. I devour books; and so does she. She’ll pull them down on the floor and chew on the corners and rip off the covers. I had a copy of How To Get Your Dog To Do What You Want. She chewed on it, and then peed on it. I wish I were kidding. (Shouldn’t I get a refund? Clearly the book didn’t help.)
So, it appears I’ve got to relocate all my reading material to higher ground as she gets bigger. She can reach things that were out of her range a few weeks ago. Like the tissue box. That’s a new favorite. It sits on our entryway table, and if she can bat her paw and knock it on the floor, she loves nothing more than to snatch a tissue and tear it to shreds. She also knocks over the garbage can to get goodies. And when she has something in her mouth she knows she shouldn’t, she runs away from me like a naughty little kid and tries to hide.
She knows what she’s doing is wrong—but she does it anyway! I thought dogs liked to please you? I need an intervention! Can I ship her somewhere for a month, have someone train her and send her back? We wanted a puppy instead of a dog because we didn’t know what bad behaviors a full grown dog would come with. Well, this little pup is developing her own bad ways, and I’m not sure what to do about it. What happens when she’s big enough to swipe her paw across the counter searching for food when I’m not looking?
I’ve learned that an idle puppy is a puppy looking for trouble. I need something to keep her occupied and happy. My sister-in-law gives her dog raw bones and swears it keeps him busy for hours. I know opinions are mixed on that, and rawhide too, so I’ve got to look into that. I have found that a few ice cubes scattered on the floor will keep her busy for a few minutes, and maybe it soothes sore gums, too. But I need more than a few minutes!
I’m hoping things get easier when the weather’s nice and she can play outside and go for walks, and fetch balls and such. I think we’ll install a run for her, which should be good. But for right now, she’s sleeping on my lap, a favorite activity for both of us. But that won’t last long, not at the rate she’s growing. That will be a sad day for both of us.
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Have you missed any of the articles in this series?
If so, you can find them at:
The Bringing Up Puppy Series page.
Related posts:
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – What’s In a Name?
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Second Thoughts
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – Hello Stranger
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – The Dog Whisperer
- Bringing Up Puppy Series – First Trip to the Vet
