Puppy Update: Stardate 08312020

We have survived another weekend. True, we haven’t exactly emerged unscathed from that weekend, but authorities are confident the current Pee Crisis is slowly, but steadily, coming under control.

Ferris continues to have accidents each day. We’ve taken to giving him treats whenever he successfully goes to the bathroom outside. This seems to be doing the trick. Early on, we were having five accidents each day. Yesterday we were down to just one. Of course, part of that might also have to do with the fact that we’re just taking him outside every thirty minutes. Can’t pee inside if he’s not inside to pee, amirite?

The bigger problem was our nightly endeavors. Ferris seemed to be taking some serious strides backward in the “don’t poop in your cage at night” department. True, some of that was due to some missed alarms in the middle of the night, but we got that problem under control, and he was still having issues. Friday and Saturday nights, Denisa got up at 2:30 and took him out. He was clean then. Tomas then got up at 5:30, and Ferris had pooped. So he got up at 5 the next day: clean cage. Put him back to bed and Daniela took over at 7: pooped cage.

This morning, Tomas got up at 5 and stayed up. That did the trick. So the current plan is to tread water there for a couple of days and then slowly move Ferris’s wake time back 15 minutes at a time until we’re less in the “why in the world are people having to get up at this unholy hour” territory. (Yes, I realize some of you actually get up at 5am as a matter of routine. That’s crazy talk, as far as I’m concerned.)

The other issue we’re dealing with in the dog department is biting. Ferris loves nibbling and nipping on just about anything that comes in his range. When that thing is Bryce sized, it’s not really a big deal. When it’s MC-sized, it’s much more serious. So we’re working on getting him to stop that. It’s taking some time, but I do believe that’s improving as well.

I suppose the good news is that we’re not thinking about social isolation nearly as much as we used to. We’re too busy trying to develop schemes to convince Mr. Drooler to toe the line.

That said, he definitely is calming down some as he learns the ropes of being around a human family. He loves playing with tennis balls and ropes, and he thinks eating rocks is the best thing ever, despite our constant reminders that he needs to stop that. He’s no longer scared of going down the front steps, and he bounds up the front steps without a thought in the world. He successfully made his first vet appointment and got a clean bill of health, even though he was very intimidated by the car ride. (He also got some deworming pills which are definitely working, to put it politely.)

While it’s been a difficult transition, and there have definitely been some times we’ve all wondered why in the world we thought this was a good idea, I’ve really loved seeing how the whole family has come together to solve this challenge. Everyone’s contributing, and that’s been a really uniting thing about the dog.

Now if he’d only stop peeing 5 minutes after we just let him in the house from another walk . . .

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