I might be a dog trainer, but it seems it doesn’t mean I am always very bright! I am lucky for the most part with my work routine, it means that I am at home a lot and I can get Betty out to the toilet, play with her and socialise her fairly easily, some days I do have to do home visits and do stuff for me that mean I am not here quite so much, yesterday was one of those days!
I was in and out a lot and away from home for a little over two hours in the morning and again in the afternoon, the most I have had to be out since Betty arrived, a new routine. When I came home around 4pm there was a bad smell in the kitchen, I looked for puddles, none, I sniffed the bin, not that, washed the floor anyway, better, but not right! I noticed that Betty, who is normally like a little magpie taking all her toys into her crate, had got most of her toys scattered around the kitchen, I looked in her crate and realised her bedding was wet with pee and the source of the smell! Dogs don’t normally wet their beds, but at this age it is more common, it is one of the reasons I haven’t been shutting her in too much, and she wasn’t confined to her crate at all today. In the litter the puppy’s use the bed for a toilet until they are getting out more normally around 4/5 weeks of age, in nature this would be a factor in keeping them safe from predators, my different routine had obviously stressed Betty a little and she reverted to natures safety behaviour and used the nest for her toilet!
Betty is starting to hang off the bottom of my jeans now, especially when I am walking! Not great for me and fairly dangerous for her, my response is to keep walking carefully but deliberately, keeping my feet low to the ground to avoid kicking her. My intention is for her to fall off my jeans as I walk or get shoved along by my foot, so that she finds this behaviour uncomfortable, it is working but she still thinks it is a good game, at one point I turned quickly to answer the phone and trod right on her, she was right under my foot, I felt bad and gave her a cuddle, but it is likely to happen again if I don’t get the message across of not playing with my feet and legs! Best I don’t wear hard soled shoes around the house for a while!
Betty's brother Smarty
Smarty retrieving!
Maggie (who owns Dennis of “over the rainbow” fame) has had a boy puppy from the same litter as Betty, she has named him Smarty and kindly sent me to photo’s today, which are shown here! Isn’t he gorgeous too?
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