Puppy meltdown

Last night was no fun. It was a pure battle of wills. Canine 1. Human 0.

Winter's schedule was all messed up due to me being in and out of the house all day. Sometimes my work keeps me in the area, and I use home as well, "home base." The result?

A puppy who had no sleep, and no set mandatory time in the crate. The effects of that were a very grumpy dog that barked, and barked, and barked, and barked from 4 pm until 12 midnight.

Puppies are like babies. They need their rest. We have since discovered this. I guess since dogs also develop 7 times faster than people in human terms Winter is almost 2 years old. As I recall from common psychology this means she is currently going through the terrible two's.

It is a good thing we have a strictly enforced "no weapons" policy in this house. At about 2 am when she finally settled down I would have been ready to use one. I know that sounds awful, but you live with a dog that barks non stop for 8 hours, and tell me how you feel!!

So today we had 45 minutes of Puppy Kindergarten. Our teacher, Kaye Ames is a gift from God. As we walked into the the puppy school today, more than a few people standing in the entrance with their dogs were "oohing" and "aahing" over out beautiful puppy - (she is cute)

Some nice old lady remarked out loud "oh look as this lovely sheepdog." I just walked by, dragging Winter by the leash as I replied, "this dog is the spawn of Satan."

Anyway, Kaye pointed out everything we are doing wrong, and she told us that she once had a dog that barked so much she wanted to give it back. This left me felling encouraged as she has been training dogs for 45 years. She has this mythical way of just putting pets at ease, its really cool to watch.

So little Winter has redeemed herself. We love her again. She just really needs some structure in her life, even more than what we were giving. She is quietly hanging out with me after a nice long nap. She is much better today. Treats really work to make her behave, its like bribery. You relax, and you get a treat.

Kaye also enforces the use of earplugs for a barking dog. I just haven't figured out how I am going to put them in Winter's ears.

Sean.