Thursday, August 13, 2009

But Why TWO Puppies?











~~Good question! Some days, we question our sanity. It is harder to house train with two--much harder. Casey has it down. Max--not so much. And the fusses! What a racket! Sometimes the wrestling is so intense, we fear someone is going to get hurt.


~~So, why did we get two puppies at once? We wanted them to have company when we are not home and playmates when we are. And for all the raucous noise, there are moments that say it all and I thought I'd share a few. ; )

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

It's Great to Crate!

~~That's right. We finally broke down and did it, and we agree, we should have done it sooner. After the worst day ever on Saturday, we consulted dog-lovers Tina and Trey. They added the last note to the mighty chorus of advisers. "Use the crate!" Casey is taking it easy in the photo above, but Max is not as sure in the one below. ; )




~~Saturday was the clincher. We had started trying puppy pee pads because clean up is so easy. The boys had another idea. When we came back from getting Mother Helen's lunch, a blizzard had hit the back bathroom. No two fibers were still next to their original neighbor and there was not piece of backing larger than two by two inches. Clean up took over half an hour.
~~So, crates here we come. Sunday we crated for forty-five minutes. Each boy had his favorite cow hoof to chew. It wasn't so bad that they wouldn't go back in. In fact, after a nap on the sofa was interrupted, Casey crawled back in his crate to finish sleeping! On Monday, we used it twice during the day--about thirty minutes and nearly three hours when we had to be gone. Guess what? They survived without accident. Afterward, they ripped, romped and played with abandon.

~~Monday night was neither quiet not easy and Max had an accident. Tuesday night was better with no accidents. So we are sure crating will work and the mornings are the reward. No poo or torn, soggy paper to clean up and, best of all, no fluffy pee pad snow!

~~We had been told how well crates work, but seeing is believing. After all, hindsight is 20/20. ; )