Baby in the house

Its been quite a while since I had a baby in the house. We put up baby gates in the kitchen so ole Scup is confined to a hard surface which is much easier to clean than our carpet.

Oh my, getting up to take care of 'business' at all hours of the night is a real nightmare. Especially in the chilly PNW. I have to put on my fleece jacket and slip on my clogs. Then I have to leash him up so I can take him over to the area by the fence that is covered in wood chips. Before going out we ring the bells. We have big sleigh bells hanging by the door , we try to get Scup to ring them too and then we say "outside get through".

So, then I go over to the fence and repeat the phrase 'outside,get through hurry'. I change my tone to sound more urgent and I repeat "hurry hurry hurry, get through"I accompany this phrase with a hand signal. The hand signal is performed by pointing the index finger to the ground and making a circular swirling motion. This training has paid off, because today I took him out while on the phone. Rather that have my caller hear me giving the command 'get through, hurry" I just made the swirling motion and Scupper good boy went on command!! Yippee.

Warren has been a trooper. I did not count, but I believe that he was up more than me. One night Warren took longer than usual to return to our cozy down covers. When I asked him why he was taking so long, told me that he liked to 'hold' Scupper till he was sleepy again before putting him back in the crate. Awh that is so sweet. I have 2 sweet boys.

The first 4 or 5 weeks have been hard but we are coming out of it now, I can see the light. There were no "mistakes" made for the past 4 days! This is an unprecedented new record.

Scupper P. Dog-heart has learned a lot. He can sit, stay,down, heel, leave it. Leave it is a very useful command when he has grabbed up my gloves or shoe or the kitty poo next door. UGH and I let him lick me; but not on the face!!! Not anywhere on the face.