Friday, July 23, 2010

The Perils of Spoiling your Dogs

It's been a cold winter. There have been a lot of clear, dry days with very low minimum temperatures. This means that Bender wants nothing more to be under the covers in bed with me, and Barbie wants to be curled up at the end of the bed against my legs, and Froufrou wants to be curled up against my chest and Mittens wants to be somewhere where the other animals aren't touching her...

Phew.

Anyway, Barbie asks to go out, usually in the early morning, around 5 by whining. After I let her out and she does her poo, I usually let them into the bedroom. Barbie is too smart for her own good. She cried at 2am this morning. I let her out. She did her poo, then I shut the bedroom door. For what seemed like hours after that she sooked and carried on. Pretty sure she just wanted to be curled up on the bed. She also peed on the carpet at some point!

So, it's been decided. No fur kids in the bed. At all. The cats were causing trouble before, and then it was Bender knocking on the door, and now Barbie. No more. They need to earn the privilege back.

The second thing I've decided - Barbie is going to be crate trained (or re-crate-trained since she lived in one before). I believe its the only way she is going to be completely housebroken. We got some new Kongs today (cos there's no way the old ones are going in the freezer), and I am ordering a crate. If we do it right, Bender is going to want a crate of his own. It may be good for Barbie because she will be able to eat pigs ears without Bender the bully taking them off her and burying them.

Just so this post isn't one big long whinge though, Barbie and Bender have discovered a new game to play together. I spent a bit of time teaching Barbie to play 'tug' with her stuffies, and when Nic got home last night she sent me a picture of the dogs playing tug of war with a flat soccer ball. They were both playing fair even though Barbie does not have the bite pressure or pulling strength that Bender has. So cute! I need to get them some proper tug toys!

1 comment:

houndstooth said...

That crate business is a funny thing! Some of ours LOVE being in the crate, so much so that they will sometimes share it. It's like a revolving door with three of them always cycling in and out of it, but one of ours HATES it and she'll have nothing to do with it! I wish you good luck with it and some peaceful nights' sleep!

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