Thursday, January 3, 2008

A Ha! and Other Dog Thoughts


This is our dog, Eva. She's a rat terrier/Boston terrier mix. A very expensive mutt disguised as an "all American mixed breed" or at least that's what the pet shop said. I kicked myself for shelling out the dough to buy her, because I could have adopted a dog that needed a home far more than this pampered thing. But alas, I saw her and fell in love.


Eva listens pretty well (sometimes) and has (mostly) gotten past her chew on everything within reach stage. When she was little, before she was crate trained, she ate a dining set and 4 chairs, a bathroom vanity, numerous shoes, and ripped the linoleum off the kitchen floor.


Now her last bad habit has been "inappropriate elimination" which is what the trainer euphemistically calls it when the dog uses the house as her own personal latrine. It happened at night, so I had to keep her in the crate. After a few hours she'd start to bark, so I'd have to stumble downstairs to let her outside. At least twice a night. It was like living with a newborn all over again.
Well, I've been on vacation from work, and the last thing I wanted was to get up twice a night to let the dog out. So I decided to let her stay out one night. I let her sleep on her doggie bed in the living room. She had a crap fest on my kitchen floor.


Next night, I let her stay upstairs in our bedroom. She dove right into the bed and made herself comfortable. She takes up a lot of space for such a small dog, and she snores and grumbles in her sleep... BUT she does not get out of bed to go crap on the floor! She will wait until morning to go outside only if she gets to sleep in our bedroom. It's a trade off, to be sure, but it's worth it to me to allow the furry gal to sleep upstairs so I can actually sleep all night.


Aside from that A Ha! moment, I fell down some stairs yesterday and yeeowch, that hurt. Stepped on a dog bone. On the first stair. It wasn't my dog who was so cavalier about human safety, but my mother's dog. I don't like her quite so much today.

7 comments:

carrie said...

The hyena used to crap all over everything. It was so infuriating. He whined and yelped in the cage, so that didn't work.

Letting him outside produces a bark fest.

After two years, he's finally just grown out of it. I'm glad you found a quicker solution.

Monique said...

I leave for a little bit & your falling down stairs! Poor baby.

Kendra Field said...

Oh poor you!

Laura Marchant said...

Ouch! Damn dog bones.

Glad to hear my dogs aren't the only misbehaving ones out there. I do have to say Cali never chewed but Max chewed my brand new, very expensive kitchen table and chair legs when he was just a few months old. I could have killed him. Those "designer dogs" gotta love them.

Anonymous said...

Hey...I fall ALL THE TIME!!!! I tripped over a peppermint that was on the ground the other day as I was leaving Target! How nerdy is that??

Mo said...

You don't like your mom or you don't like her dog? ;)

Matter Of Fact Mommy said...

LOVE THE DOG! sorry, just happened upon your blog while reading melindazook's blog. i have had boston terrier's since i was a pre-teen and continue to have them throughout my adulthood. sorry about falling down the stairs - i did that once recently and it sucked. was in pain for weeks and had the HEMATOMA to prove it! happy new year!