I knew this was going to be hard. I will admit that I did not expect it to be this hard. The past two nights, we have had very little sleep. Last night, I slept from about 1 to 1:45. I think that was the longest period of restfulness I have had since Friday night.
On top of the "all night" supervision of the puppy, Ripken is very wary of the pup. Parker, on the other hand, loves to be with Ripken, especially at night. Parker climbs onto Ripken's dog bed (he's not being crated, yet) and tries to snuggle with Ripken. Ripken puts up with it, but fitfully. He occasionally gets up to get away from the little guy (did I mention this previously?).
On top of that, here are the details from yesterday's summary of the morning (our first morning together): I didn't do a good job of staging my dog chores, so Parker managed to slip off and leave a very odorous calling card on the living room floor. I was so angry at myself for not paying closer attention.
After all settled down, Monkey woke up and was in the kitchen with Parker. I was reading the paper, and I heard Parker whine. I heard Monkey say, "Just a sec." I thought for a moment that I should go help her, but I didn't. And, in that moment, Parker left another mess in a different part of the living room. Again, I was mad at myself for knowing what was developing and not doing anything to help. To top it all off, a little while longer, with no notice, Parker peed in the dining room. Again, our fault, but that (for those of you keeping score) made three accidents before noon. At that point, Monkey and I felt like the worst dog owners in the world.
I guess it got better over the course of the day, but I think Monkey and I were so shell shocked by the dog elimination disaster of the morning that we simply kept a tense vigil over Parker for the rest of the day. And with Ripken wrought with canine angst over the arrival of his new family, we both felt guilty about changing the dynamic of the household. Oh, yeah, and we are both (maybe all) sleep deprived. So, right now, we feel like guilty, shell shocked, incompetent dog owners. Ah, the joys of owning a puppy.
It's okay. We recognize that things will improve. We expect Ripken to warm up to Parker; we expect that the number of accidents will decrease (so far today: one wetting); we expect that, one night, in the very near future, we will get to sleep the night through. It just won't likely be this month.
As for the sibling struggles, we lived that very vividly only amplified by the fact that Matilda and Chloe are different species. It's taken time, but they seem to appreciate each other. Just tonight, Matilda rang the bell at the back door to beckon us, but she wasn't wanting out. She was wanting us to let the cat in.
ReplyDeleteWe got Matilda when she was roughly 12 weeks. By that point, she was good from 1 am to 6 am. So, a sound night sleep isn't too far off.
Ripken is proof that you're kick ass dog parents. A few accidents don't sully that fact. If that's the case, then we absolutely sucked. Matilda probably had 4-6 accidents a day there for a while, and that was WITH taking her out diligently. She's a potty-trained champ now.