The Puppy

The vet sent Howie home yesterday morning since he was up and active and had had 3 negative parvo tests. Who knows what was really wrong. I think he was just super depressed. We took him away from the rescue ranch and all his brothers and sisters and other dogs and horses and ducks and made him sleep and stay in a crate without really allowing him to get comfortable in it first. The vet said he was too depressed for it to be that, but by the time she saw him it had been a really long time since he'd eaten or had anything to drink so of course he was super sick.

So for now he's sleeping in our bathroom at night with the door blocked by a gate and doing okay with that. He cries a little, but not as much or as frantically as he did in the crate, and we're right there and can talk to him (we were with the crate too, but it's different), and he has a ton of room to move around and shouldn't feel so confined. And we're going to really focus on crate training this weekend and try not to leave him alone at all until he likes it.

Our puppy also doesn't like walking on a leash. It's annoying and a little funny. He just won't do it sometimes. When we start out he freezes or lies down and won't go any farther. I pick him up and put him on his feet and he'll walk a little and then lie down again. But when we turn around to go home, he's a leash-walking champ. He trots along like an old pro, next to me or one of the girls, doesn't pull on the leash or stop or anything. Silly pup.

He still prefers peeing on the carpet, so far. I'm not sure he knows how to ask me to let him out, yet, but I'm getting better at picking up on his body language and taking him outside when I think he needs to go. I may actually be overcompensating because we've spent a lot of time outside today and yesterday not going potty, but we'll figure it out.

He actually seems like a pretty smart dog. Now to find out if I'm actually a pretty smart dog-owner...