Day 5 with Xena. She is a very fortunate puppy to have a Mummy that works in peoples homes... therefore able to pop into home for a while here and there. Xena doesn't like being left in the laundry but it is safe, clean and lots of fun thing for her to play with. Whimper.... whimper... whimper.
Just like the 2nd night home I am having to listen to my puppy cry. It sucks. Xena has started to sleep well at night though now. She only cried about 10 minutes last night before settling down.
Today I've been home for 2 hours from work The kids are at school. Xena has eaten and played outside with me for a long time. I brought her back inside for quiet time. I unpacked shopping and started to tidy the house. Then I took a coffee break and instead of letting her sit under my legs.... I put her in the laundry.
I don't mind Xena sleeping or walking in the house but she needs to learn that she is also ok by herself. This is because eventually I will be putting her outside while I'm at work and I don't want her crying, whimpering and howling there.
I also need to do things like mop the floor, and that means I don't want a puppy chasing the mop or walking on the wet spots. I do feel guilty putting her in the laundry, but there should always be a place in the house that we can safely place her when we don't feel like having a large dog around... say when young children are over or my elderly mother comes to stay.
Yes I know.... proper training should mean she will be well behaved around people... I just can't `100% trust a dog what will grow to be the size of a small pony.
There she's settled down now. Sounds like she's off to sleep.
I have to go do all my ironing in the section of the house she is not allowed into. Now I don't have to worry about her tearing up anything in the living areas while I'm at it.
Oh... I have trained Xena to 'wait' The puppy class teacher said something about teaching a dog not only to stay but to wait. Cant remember exactly what she said but I think the idea is that if you ask a dog to stay you will eventually call it to come to you. If you ask it to wait, you will be back shortly and it needs to relax about that.
Whenever I go into the sleeping section of the house I tell Xena wait and I close the door. At first she sulked till I came back a minute later. Now she just trots off and has a drink or something. She handles it well. That's ok for a couple of minutes.
I'm pretty sure she knows her name now... though she doesn't always choose to acknowledge it. Xena also knows 'come'.
One thing that is bothering the kids is her continuing jumping up on them when she first sees them and is excited. We will be dealing with it tomorrow morning... see how it goes.
The cat came home breifly yesterday. She ate and left.... haven't seen her since. Kids were happy to see her. My elder daughter followed her and found her in the secret garden... yes our house has a secret garden down the back. I wish she'd come home.
On the other hand, for a puppy that hasn't looked twice at the cat, I heard Xena growling and tearing something apart this morning... it was the cats bed! I've never heard her play so visciously. Perhaps the cat is right!
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