Cardiff is sulking and it’s adorable.
I put him in the crate because he was so spazzy he was going to hurt himself. He stomped around and kicked his bed and wedged it in the back corner, all wadded up. He’s sleeping on it, with his back to me. Occasionally he huffs.
Sometimes he looks at me to see if I’m paying attention to his ignoring me.
After nearly a month of no-accidents-overnight (or during the day when we’re at work), we decided it was time Cardiff got his very first “big boy bed”. He loves it. He’s now willing to go into his crate to just crash when he feels like it. Several times over the weekend he’s wandered in and plopped down. It’s also reduced his urge to jump on the sofa (although if a person is on the sofa, he still wants up there).
So far, too, he hasn’t tried tearing it up. He has moved it and bunched it up in the corner and slept on the plastic floor, but I think he’s getting out of that habit.
Cardiff still doesn’t bark and how much do I love that? Loads. Heaps. Vast amounts that I cannot explain. Even when we’re walking him and other dogs are barking at him! He just sits and looks at them like their out of their minds.
We’re still having the trainer come in, though. No sense in screwing him up now, when he’s so close to perfect.
So far Cardiff has been to Patterson Park to look at ducks and watch people, Starbucks to watch me drink a coffee, and to Fell’s Point to look at people and pirates. He chucked in the car after the trip to Starbucks. Maybe that double espresso was a bit much for him?
KIDDING! The dog gets no coffee.
Really, the point is that we had all these successful car trips with no incidents - aside from the upchuck thing. And the difference there is that we had the windows open. All the other times the a/c was on. I wonder if the windows being open is part of the problem? Too much noise and too many smells coming in at him, maybe? Or I could just be overthinking or projecting my own feelings.
In any case, he was a brilliant, well-behaved, and adorable dog. Today we’re just chilling. He’s asleep on my knees under the coffee table (I’m sitting on the floor) and continuing his “Good Boy” routine.
So we’ve been looking into getting some schooling for the dog and it looks like we might try BarkBusters. They come to your home and train you to control your dog. I found them through our vet.
Cardiff doesn’t have any real behaviour problems. A lot of his acting out is because he’s a puppy and he gets tired and frustrated and can’t express it any way other than jumping and nipping. But we don’t want it to become habit, so we’ve got to learn how to tell what he needs and we need to learn how to command him.
Could be interesting.
He made it all the way to Eastern Avenue with no problem - probably because he was focused on following Kitti to the bus stop. Across the street, though, he balked and kept sitting down.
Once the traffic died down he was good. We walked around the hospital and back past the pond and I figured out why he does the jumping thing — he wants to run. He doesn’t do it to Kitti because he knows Kitti won’t give in. So I didn’t give in and eventually we made it back to Eastern Avenue. He was good the whole way home.
Therefore: when he gets like that, I just have to keep stopping and making him sit/behave, or I have to hand him to Kitti because he won’t put up with it.
I have to stop putting up with it and make him behave the second he starts it. Well, assuming we’re not in the middle of the street. If I keep walking he thinks it’s a game. Even walking and correcting him is too much of a game for him, so it’s dead stop time. Stopping is the exact opposite of what he wants.
Cardiff had one of his best walks of his life today. He was really interested and ready to go and had some good fun. He met several dogs and they all seemed to like him. He just wanted to stop and play.
We’ve got to get him more socialised with other dogs before he outgrows this “OMG YAY!” love of all other people and animals.
This is what Cardiff looked like on Saturday
See what he looks like now!
An email I sent to Kitti this morning:
He ate.
He pooed.
He walked.
He acted like a beast when we got close to home and I figured it out. He knows it means I’m going to put him in the crate and leave. When we got back into the house he was whimpery and clingy so I played with him for a little while. I didn’t leave for work until almost 8 because I felt so bad about leaving him.
Sigh.
Cardiff turned 4 months old on Sunday and started teething in a serious way. There’s just the barest white tips showing through the gums at this point. Four teeth at once (top and bottom, left and right) and he’s turned into a beast.
He’s gotten picky about his food and doesn’t want the crunchy stuff. We had to mix his puppy food with water to soften it up, and then he ate like a starving man.
When he’s playing, he’ll occasionally stop and swipe a paw against the side of his mouth. He also wants to sleep a lot more, which isn’t too bad, but when he’s out of his crate, all he wants to do is bite things me. More than before. I think he just wants me to fix it. I’ve been soaking one of his cloth toys in cold water and letting him chew that.
Poor wee doggie. At least this is something that we know he’ll outgrow.
Rabies shot on Saturday. I’ll ask the vet if there’s anything else we can do if he’s still in a lot of teething pain by then.
Cardiff does not like Beneful Puppy food. He prefers the Pedigree.
Otherwise, it’s still just the same - he has good days and bad days with his walks. His morning walk has actually gotten better. Instead of being cranky and hesitating and pitching a fit when I try to walk him, the past two days he’s been excited and willing to go. When he does have a little fit, it’s brief. Sometimes it’s just because he’s frightened by something (crows) or wants to spend more time sniffing things.
His new trick, however, has gone beyond just biting me when we’re in the house. Now I can’t walk him without him trying to trip me, bite my ankles, grab my jeans or coat or shirt, or him trying to jump up. If Kitti walks him and I’m behind them, Cardiff stops and pulls and turns and walks sideways so he can keep an eye on me.
On one hand, I’m glad the dog loves me. On the other, it makes for some really horrible walks.
This morning he was good. No chewing, no biting, no grabbing… I thought maybe last night’s completely miserable walk taught him a lesson. And maybe it did…. Unfortunately that lesson might’ve been “go nuts when you get back to the yard” because he was once again biting and jumping and generally being a brat.
New strategy: when he gets like that, I’m just going to ignore him. If Kitti is home, he can deal with the dog (Cardiff does not do that to him at all). If Kitti isn’t home, Cardiff will have to go into his crate.
Yeah, I’m giving the dog a time out to think about what he’s done.
To be fair, his good behaviour is really good. He’s catching on to things like “sit” and “down” and he’s just too damn cute for words.
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