Progress

It's been three weeks since Luna and I started living together. I think we've made a lot of progress in three weeks.

My dad has started coming in mid-day and taking her out for a washroom break, as well as keeping her company. I don't know that she's warmed up to him just yet, but it makes me feel 100% better that someone I know is spending time with her so she's not entirely alone throughout the day. Plus, it helps that I don't have to rush home to take her out myself.

I took her to her first stranger-filled event on Saturday - a barbecue out in Chilliwack. She had a ball. She let people pet her. She even let a woman neither of us knew, hold her. It was nice. She loved the open air - she smelled it when we got off the highway. It's the only time she took interest in the entire, hour-long ride. She got to run around on grass (my friend has her own dog so Luna used the dog pen). She was good.

Last week, and even now, I feel like if I could do it all again, I wouldn't. It's not a lot of physical work - I don't mind waking up at 5 a.m. to take her out for her first washroom break of the day. it's just the thought that there is some other living thing depending on me to be responsible. It kind of sucks. As much as I love her and wouldn't trade her for any other dog (I'd add a dog, though!), if I could do it again, knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't. Not until there was someone else that could be responsible for her too.

Selfish, eh?

In any event, she's a complete weirdo and she lives up to her Luna-tic namesake. I've stopped using the baby gate to gate her off in the bathroom during the day because the little monkey has learned how to scale the wall. I actually watched her climb over the gate. She can jump pretty high, and once she realized she could use those large airholes for leverage, there was no way she was staying in. I figure as long as she doesn't make a mess on the couch or get into anything around the apartment, I don't mind if she has the run of most of the floor. I close the den, bedroom and bathroom doors (because, as I discovered a couple of weeks ago, she likes the bathroom garbage at a certain time of the month - my little vampire), and she has the run of everything else. I keep her kennel in the kitchen, along with the water and food (and litter, not that she uses it), and I hope that keeps her in on the tile for the most part.

She goes absolutely ape-shit when I come home and I have to admit, it's a pretty good feeling. No human will ever be as excited to see me as she is when I get home. Hell, even when I take out the garbage and I'm only gone for 5 minutes, she's ecstatic when I come back. She's a funny little thing.

Someone asked me today if she sheds. I had to laugh because I think I pull more of my hair off of her than the other way around. Poor thing even finds my hair in her water dish and there was one day when she was munching away at her kibble and she looked up at me and there was one long, black hair hanging off the hair on her face.

I can't believe I've only had her for three weeks. It feels like we've been together forever. In a good and bad way :)

Abandoned

I am leaving for a weekend away tomorrow and as such, have left Luna with my mom. I dropped her off, played a little and then sneaked out while they were sitting out on the balcony. According to my mom, the minute I left, Luna lept out of her lap, ran to the door, and the proceeded to search each room five times to see whether I would appear. Poor little thing!

I miss my little baby. I wish I could've taken her with me, but it'd be a bit of a pain. I've decided I'm going to start training her up using treats now. Maybe then she'll pee in the GD box.

Week 1

It was exactly one week ago that I picked up Luna from the breeder. It seems like so long ago! I'll admit, there have been days when I've felt like I've done the wrong thing. Last night was one of them.

Luna gets extremely excited when I come home, be it from work or just a couple of hours away from the house. The past couple of times I've come home, she's had an accident - the first time on the carpet, but the second (and techincally third) on the couch. Not pleased at all.

The first time, I let it go. After all, I didn't actually catch her in the act of peeing, so I couldn't scold her. But the second time, she was sitting there on the couch. When I lifted her up, there was a spot of urine where she had been sitting. I was angry. I scolded her right away, and took her to the litter box. She didn't pee.

I put the leash on her and started to take her outside, then I realized I would be rewarding her for peeing on the couch, so I promptly went back inside. I locked her in the bathroom and cleaned up the mess. When she came out again, she ran out and jumped on the couch, where she peed again. I was beyond mad. Since I caught her doing again, I scolded her and put her nose in the stain.

I then decided to take her outside, but not praise her for anything she did out there, nor would I cuddle with her when we came back inside. She went promptly into the kennel and into the bedroom.

I was curious about this behaviour. She seems housetrained. Why is she starting to have these accidents?

I decided to (what else?) Google it, and came up with an answer that left me with my tail between my legs.

What she is likely doing is called "submissive urination". It happens when you have a dog that is shy or timid or young (she's not young, but definitely timid still). The dog's instincts when they know they are with a dog or human they consider superior is to urinate. It tells the dog (at least) that the submissive dog knows they are submissive. Apparently, when this is done with owners that don't understand what is going on and scold the dog (read: me), the dog tries to please the owner/master further by urinating more, to emphasize their submission. You can see how the vicious circle starts.

There were tips on how to lessen the instances (for example, when I come home, ignoring her for awhile until she calms down, taking her outside without talking to her, letting her do her thing and then afterwards, giving her praise but at eye level), but you can imagine how terrible I felt. Poor thing.

I'll have another opportunity tonight to test out this theory. Hopefully if she has to pee in submission again, she doesn't do it on the couch.