Shock Value

I've been having a hard time walking with Wheatie for a week or so now. At first, I was trying to hold the leash so that he'd be at least next to me or a few steps behind me, but he was pulling so much that I pretty much gave up and let him pull from the front. This was a mistake (of course) because he'd be eating everything that he saw in front of him and would often pick up leaves or flowers. I decided to switch back to how I was originally holding the leash where he would need to be on my side. He didn't like that at all and would pull nearly the whole walk. My hands would hurt afterward because of having to hold on to the leash.

I knew that I needed to get him a new collar or something else to train him to walk better. I asked my dad if he had any of Shin or Aki's old collars. He ended up giving me a bunch of harnesses and an old chain collar that one of them used to wear. Last night, BFC and I decided to try the chain collar to see how Wheatie would react to it. Let me tell you, that was the BEST thing that we decided to do since he was great on the entire walk. At first, he was a little shocked about how he couldn't pull as hard as he could with the regular collar, but he got used to it and was able to walk at a nice pace with us.

I told BFC that Wheatie walks way better with him than he does with me, but BFC said that Wheatie actually walks better with me because he'll actually follow me. Apparently Wheatie plops himself down when BFC tries to walk him. I have yet to see that, but I told BFC that if the chain collar doesn't work after a while, he could try using one of the harnesses Dad gave us instead.

Tails of Hawaii

Woke up to Wheatie's crying at about 3:45. I was surprised that he'd be crying so early since he usually doesn't make any noise until he hears my alarm go off. He kept crying, so I decided to take him outside to use the bathroom. I noticed his paws were wet as I put on his leash. Took him down, came back upstairs to investigate his kennel, and found VOMIT there! He had vomited right near the entrance of his kennel. Of course, I got over the initial sick feeling in my stomach and put him in his pen in the living room. Took a while to clean up everything and by the time I was done, it was already 4:30. I decided to stay up since I feed him a little after 5 in the morning. We went through the normal morning routine and I even did all my laundry.

I was looking online at random stuff when I came across something about dog boarding. Tails of Hawaii, which is really close to my house, was ranked pretty high among the other dog boarding places. I found a coupon in a pet magazine I got from the Pet Expo a few weeks ago. I told BFC we should check it out so we can see if Wheatie is "fit" to board there since they actually do an evaluation of the dog before boarding it. I guess this is to weed out the really harmful dogs. Anyway, BFC and I went to Tails this morning to see if we could get Wheatie evaluated. They were able to take us right away and we were able to watch how he was in the small dog room right from the waiting room since they have cameras set up in all the rooms. It was pretty funny because as we watched him, we noticed that he quickly jumped off the worker's lap and began sniffing the other dogs. He looked very happy. We needed to leave him there for a few hours to see how he'd be with the other dogs. BFC and I went out for a few hours and returned to pick him up. The staff said that he had been a great dog, so we were really happy about that. We actually made plans to have him boarded there in the future. When we got home, Wheatie was pooped and has been great since then. I'm glad we decided to take him since it's raining down here now....don't think he'll have a walk this evening if it continues.

5 months and 1 week

I've noticed that Wheatie has been acting like a major brat recently. He actually tried to bite me this morning when I was trying to touch his paws. He did have something in his mouth at the time too, so I knew he was protecting that object. I knew I had to do something about that because I don't want that behavior continuing.

I've been reading blogs online about what to do with Wheatie and how to prevent him from further damage. I've been letting him run all over me. BFC and I are now on a new regime to make him a better dog. Wish us luck!

Last night, BFC and I had a really hard time with Wheatie. I think he must have been pretty wild because he didn't go out for a real walk at all yesterday. I've been trying to be good at taking him for walks at least three times a day to keep him active and also so he'll be able to sleep at night. I made sure to take him out for a long walk this morning since I won't be home until late tonight. It's funny how one day, he'll be the most mellow dog in the world, but on others, he'll be a holy terror. It's hard to stay really mad after looking at his cute face though.

Wheatie

I've always been an animal lover and when I moved out, I always thought about getting a dog. I would drag BFC to various puppy swap meets and pet stores to look at the puppies. I always liked to look, but never really settled on purchasing one since I didn't feel ready.

BFC and I decided to get a puppy a few weeks ago. The first few days were the worst! During that first night, I didn't get any sleep and the puppy didn't want to sleep in the kennel that we bought him. Fortunately this was on a Friday night so I could sleep for a few hours on Saturday after work. We decided to name him Wheatie because the majority of his fur was the color of wheat and we were thinking of the cereal too. That Friday night/Saturday morning, BFC and I took shifts sleeping while the other watched the puppy.

Now, things have gotten better. I've been able to sleep more regularly and have been going on more walks than ever now. He's actually a great puppy. He was really good in puppy class and usually sleeps around during the day. He gives cues when he needs to go to the bathroom. The only humbug part is that BFC and I have to walk up and down the stairs whenever he needs to go. I've been thinking of buying this litter box for dogs that has fake grass to put in the living room...