count your successes

A victory in terms of crate training! While Shep still doesn't seem to see it as a haven - he spends less time voluntarily in it now than he did a few weeks ago, when he'd just go nap in there - it's no longer a struggle to get him to go into the crate when we leave in the morning, or at bedtime. Sometimes he even goes in there when he sees the treat box come out, whether we want him in the crate or not. A win!

On the other hand, he now likes to sneak up the stairs when we're not looking, or if one of us goes to the restroom. Where he used to thunder up the stairs, he's now so quiet that I don't know he's there until his tags jingle, and then he thunders down the stairs when he's caught. The most fun game for a puppy, he says! This is, of course, why we forbade him from the stairs in the first place - he goes down so fast he's likely to slip and fall (for the 100th time) and hurt himself, and he also likes to get underfoot and try to nip at your feet, and I don't want to fall either.

There are accomplishments and setbacks. He's much better on the leash than he was, but he's still mouthy. He obeys better, but he talks back more. He's pretty well housebroken, but he still wants to eat his poop. He's been good in terms of socializing, but he still hates the Yorkies a few doors down. Better to look on the bright side, right? He'll get there.

The Not-So-Silent Puppy

The ways in which living with an older puppy are like living with a teenager are myriad. Today, the one that stands out the most is his tendency to backchat me when I tell him he's in trouble. For instance, yesterday, we had to move the baby gate that keeps him out of our bedrooms to keep him out of the kitchen instead, because he's tall enough and athletic enough to get onto the counters. That meant that I had to discipline him to keep him off the stairs instead, since he has a tendency to thunder up and down them and try to trip people by eating their feet. A few hearty NOs kept him off for a while, but then I went upstairs and he started to follow me.

I turned around and said, "NO." He waited about ten seconds, staring at me, and then yowled, clearly a "that's what you say!" sort of a noise.

Today, I was cooking dinner and had taken down the gate temporarily. He disappeared for a few minutes and I found him in the kitchen, licking the outside of a pan that was on the counter. He knows much better than that, and had already been disciplined once for trying to get into food that wasn't his. I said "NO" and dragged him out of the kitchen and set up the baby gate again. He submitted for a few minutes and then got in my face and yowled some more.

It's all very exciting around here. It's funny, because in general, he's quite submissive: he rolls on his back if anyone looks at him funny, and he nuzzles under the chins of dogs eight times smaller than he is. It isn't as if we don't feed him - since we're still trying to get him to a healthy weight for his size, he gets three meals a day. He just wants more food, and he wants attention, but I've never had a dog who went about it quite that way, or responded the same way to verbal discipline. I've certainly had dogs bark at me before, but not in a "Oh yeah? Well, I can say that too!"

Not the way I can say it, buster.

Introductions - let's shake hands all around

This is a blog about our dog, Shep, and how we learned to be dog parents. Here is his little face wondering if you have a treat in your pocket somewhere.

I'm Mary, and I've had dogs most of my life, but never really been responsible for their upbringing - frankly, my mother was much more motivated and experienced than I was. Erin, my compatriot in this endeavor, has never had a dog before, so we're both learning.

Shep is a shelter puppy, around ten months old by anyone's best guess. He's part Australian Shepherd (probably) and possibly part German Shepherd. According to Erin's friend who is a vet, this means he is "very intelligent, very active, and a little neurotic" - perfect for us. We had intended to get another dog entirely, from a different shelter in a different city (because if we were going to get a dog, might as well rescue one from a fate of death rather than paying out the nose for a pedigree, since all we cared about was that our dog love us and have a better life than he would have), but then we met Shep at the Farmer's Market, only an hour or so after our landlord told us we could have a dog. He sniffed our coffee cups and rolled over for belly rubs, and it was love.

He's definitely suited to us. He came home with a respiratory infection (a common problem in this allergy-ridden household) and a penchant for lying in the sun for hours (just like me!). He loves the smell of coffee and tries to drink out of bottles. At first, he was afraid of his squeaky toys and whined whenever they made a noise, but now he just goes to town. He's also smart enough to know exactly what we want him to do and just how to get away with not doing it (pretending not to hear is a favorite). But he was housebroken by the time a week went by, he learned his name and how to sit on the very first day, and I think we're making a good start on learning what is and what isn't permissible.

We figured we'd blog about our experiences as first time dog parents. This way, the next time we pick up a pet, we'll remember what we're getting into. As my mother said, having an older puppy is probably good experience for having teenagers. I told her this makes me never want to have children, and she laughed.

Life is definitely more amusing with a dog around. Just this afternoon, he was chewing on something with that expression that said he knew it was something he shouldn't have. I pried open his mouth and surprise! - the squeaker from the toy hot dog his auntie brought him. It's a silent hot dog now, and from that comes the name of this blog. So enjoy, advise, and be entertained by his puppy antics.