Milestones Are What You Make Them

Yesterday, a tiny event occurred. Nothing Earth-shattering. Nothing remarkable outside the bizarro kitchen of our little house. In the eyes of anyone but myself and Monkey, it was a simple act, repeated seven times.

When I got home from work, I put the handles back on the cabinets and drawers. I had removed them within minutes of Parker's arrival in our home, since he immediately found them irresistible to gnaw on. Knowing he was going to spend a lengthy period of each day in the kitchen, and knowing that he would be at a height at which those handles would be a grave temptation for a length of weeks or months, I thought it prudent to remove them.

Lately, I have noticed Parker, as he ages his way through his eleventh week on Earth (so short, really), display a growing amount of maturity. Granted, he is still plenty puppy and will most likely be for years to come, but he is definitely a more reasonable dog now than he was just last week. So, I thought I would put the handles back on and see what developed.

When he noticed the handles, he went over to the under-the-sink cabinet (which he is fond of--he must like the smell of Bon Ami) and sniffed the handle on one of the doors. He tentatively mouthed it, but immediately withdrew after a stern, "No." He did not try to chew them again that evening. I was ecstatic.

So, while the pedantic twisting of a metal knob onto a cabinet door may seem like nothing but the turning of a wrist, for us, last night, we were ratcheting up the stakes on a puppy assessment. And, our little puppy demonstrated nearly exceptional proficiency.

Looking Down the Road

On Wednesday, Parker will be 11 weeks old. When things are really tough (and those times are getting fewer and fewer...except for the damn biting), I keep thinking that in a week or so, he'll be 12 weeks. Somehow, that is a magic number.

We got Ripken at 12 weeks, and, as often happens with the passage of time, Ripken's training and general upbringing was an idyll of human-dog interaction. The reality is most likely far from idyllic, but that is how it is reminisced about. Even with a puppy journal that proves to me that even after a month of training, he was still destroying pillows and chewing an occasional hat, I still turn a blind eye to the truth and imagine that once Parker gets through this week and half of the next, he will somehow reach a point of puppy maturity that will make him easily led and instantly certain of his role in any training exercise.

This will happen, right? When we are done doing our outside business at 5 am and the rain is pouring down, he will instantaneously follow me back into the house instead of plopping down in the wet grass to chew on a mouthful of maple tree helicopters. When we have just had a refreshing drink of water, we won't immediately jump into Ripken's face to bite him, begin wrestling with him, and, within seconds, vomit up all of our water on the dining room floor. When we are out walking, we won't stop to pick up every stick, leaf, acorn shell, piece of trash, grass stem, food wrapper, soda bottle, bird dropping, etc. When it's time to nap, we won't jump up behind me while I make dinner and try to bite the back of my knees. These are simply the small miracles that I expect to happen in less than ten days.

I also know, in a year or two, I will look back longingly on these days, and remember how easy it was to train our brilliant little Parker. Ah, time--the healer.

Teaching Kids, Teaching Dogs

I haven't decided which one is harder. I mean, on some level, you can reason with a kid. You can't reason with a dog. But, training a puppy is good practice for managing kids, because training a dog is behavior modification at its most basic. Reward the good, discourage the bad. Teach replacement behaviors. Maintain consistency. Be calm. Be clear. Be assertive.

Sounds easy, huh? You can guess from previous comments that it's not. On one level, it wears you out. It seems like already a thousand times the dog has gnawed on my shirt, I've said "NO," I've given him his bone immediately afterward, and I've said "Good boy," as he chewed on it. I know that that consistency will pay off with a dog that won't chew for long, and will know (I hope) what he can and can't chew on (which will deny me the joy of guest posting on PUPPY CHOWED but, I can deal with that), but for the love of Pete, I am getting damn sick and tired of saying it every two minutes.

On the other hand, Parker is quickly getting the hang of the "sit" command, and he clearly recognizes his name now (Ripken recognizes Parker's name, too). However, after he sits, he springs up like a baby kangaroo to snatch the treat from your fingers. So, it goes something like this: sit-good boy-NO-sit-good boy-NO-sit-good boy-shove treat up his nose before he can jump. Wins and losses. We try to be consistent and spend a few minutes each day on a particular skill--obviously, teaching the skill set known as walking sometimes devolves into a comic CF involving a ten year-old dog wrapping a leash around a woman trying to drag a ten week-old dog up out of the gutter while he (the ten week-old) gloriously gnaws on the leash while alternately snapping at the fetters of the ten year-old dog. But, it will be hit or miss until after the first week of June when both of us are around a lot more. That's when the real fun will start.

So, as I turn the key in the door after a long day of practicing behaviors with students, I sometimes wish I didn't have to continue the same with the dogs. But, in both cases, it is a long-term rewarding activity, filled with short-term disasters and medium-range triumphs and smiles and grimaces in between. It's only life...but, damn, can it wear a brother (and a sister) out.

Arm-twisted? Not really, I guess.

Okay, okay. I'll post again. I've thought about writing another post, but it's just been...shall we say, hectic around here...

Yes, ATR is correct in that "things get easier." Many things about Parker joining our family and the transition of it all are getting easier. I'd say primary on that list for me is that all of us are getting more sleep. Parker is doing really well in the crate at night, and for that, I'm VERY grateful. He is sleeping a good 5 to 6 hours most nights (let's hope I'm not jinxing that by putting "it out there"). Ripken is also coming around to Parker...sort of. Ripken is definitely tolerating Parker more and the past two days have given rise to some play-ish behavior on Ripken's part. They are rough-housing a bit with Ripken asserting slightly more dominance. Ripken is barking, play-growling, and pinning Parker occasionally, and Parker often takes off running and scampers under a chair for cover (hilarious to see this in person). Of course, there are still times when Ripken usurps his toys to Parker in a heartbeat. So, a few steps forward and one or two back. So is the way of progress, I guess.

The most challenging piece for me this past week (and I'd likely guess ATR would echo my sentiment) is Parker's struggles to take a walk. This is kinda crazy to me--I mean what dog doesn't want to go on a walk?!?! Ripken would NEVER turn down the opportunity to take a walk. Parker on the other hand...it's all good until we get down our front steps to the sidewalk in front of our house. Then Parker sits, sometimes lies down, and refuses to move. It used to be that taking him across the street away from the friendly scent of home would be enough to get him going. Oh no, not anymore. He might walk five paces and then dig his paws into the ground and not budge. Then we try picking him up and taking him down the block 4 or 5 houses away. Sometimes this works and sometimes, not so much. We are even trying treats to get him to budge! And that works like 5% of the time. It seems easier (though not a ton) if all 4 of us are walking together. And it seems MUCH harder if just one of us is "walking" both Ripken and Parker and there is a time-constraint factored in such as needing to get to a meeting or another appointment. I'm really trying to channel Caesar: "calm and assertive." But often I'm just channeling me: "flustered, impatient, and losing it."

Another minor update: Vet visit this morning revealed Parker has gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks!

Things Get Easier...

I am hoping that Monkey will join in the keeping of this blog, but, so far, she needs a bit more prodding. Maybe she doesn't have the time (entirely possible), but, maybe, if enough folks ask her to post on occasion (I was hoping we could alternate posts, but that might be too much to ask), maybe she'll decide to do it. Maybe not. We can only try. I hope she doesn't feel like I am putting her on the spot...or maybe that's exactly what I am trying to do. Sometimes, I am more clever than even I can determine.

So far today has been an accident-free day. I hope I don't jinx it, because yesterday was an accident-free day, also. It might be that we have turned a corner. I expect that we will regress a bit before we are totally out of the woods, but, honestly, ten days of house training, while stressful to the max at times, seems like a pretty good bargain.

On top of that, Parker rattled his crate at 4:30 this morning, which, in my book, counts as sleeping through the night. That's two straight nights for that. You can probably sense the tone of these entries changing, can't you? The only drawback is that Monkey and I have hardly seen each other in forever. I was gone this weekend, and it seems that once I get home from work, she is out the door to some or another meeting or function or lecture or whatever. I hope that we can spend some time together this weekend (even if all we do is run errands), and I know, at the very least, I owe her a birthday apple pie.

Well, I am going to stick a picture up on here and go feed the boys. It's kind of nice to say that...I wish we had some chickens, though.

A Breakthrough

There was a glimmer of hope today that at some point in the near future, our lives would reach something like the normal we used to know. Monkey was able to go to work for several hour stretches, leaving Parker happily snoozing in his crate. This certainly brightened her spirits, which were sagging a bit after her tumultuous birthday-less birthday weekend (although she did have a few well-wishers who tried to make it festive, Parker was not terribly cooperative). Even a slight accident by Parker (completely (as always) our fault...he hinted...but how much can one dog pee in a twenty minute period? He'd already been out twice.) was not enough to dampen our spirits.

Our happiness was brought on not only by Parker's "day" alone, but by the interaction between Ripken and Parker after I came home from work. We were in the backyard, and Parker was making runs at Ripken. At first, Ripken avoided Parker. Then, it became clear that Ripken was turning away from Parker and getting the little guy to chase him! They were actually playing together. Ripken bared his teeth at Parker, and jumped around with him. At one point, Ripken even knocked Parker down and stood over his prone little self, sniffing. And when Parker was chewing a stick, paying no mind to Ripken, the old dog went over and snatched the stick away from his little brother. Now that is some dog action I can endorse!

A Guest Post

Your tried and true blogger, ATR, is still back "home" for said wedding, and before he left he bestowed upon me the power to be a contributor to The Parker Chronicles. I'm not sure I can live up to ATR's witty, comical, satirical (and sometimes parenthetical voice), but I'll give it a go this morning during this respite of relative calm during what I'm referring to as "Puppy Watch--2010."

As ATR mentioned on Friday's post, we've had some ups and downs this week. We had a few accidents which were frustrating, and I took them a bit harder than usual as I'm sleep-deprived, more than a bit stressed at having had to basically take an impromptu week off work to be home with Parker, and feeling a bit sorry for myself at spending my birthday NOT celebrating my birthday nor having any time for myself. But overall, as I sit here on this Sunday morning with Parker napping in his crate and Ripken napping on the big-boy bed in the sunroom with me, I feel like we're moving forward. Since Wednesday, Parker has been in his crate every day for an hour or two, and more importantly, he has SLEPT IN HIS CRATE every night since then. Last night we had our longest uninterrupted stretch during the night--Parker went in at about 10:30pm and didn't cry to go out until about 2:45am. That is over 4 hours! Magic sleeping time for me--and I suppose Ripken and Parker, too, but really this is about me getting some sleep, I mean about Parker starting to sleep more through the night. So that is fantabulous progress. Parker is also doing fairly well on the leash for walks--he does better when he is following Ripken (he SO wants to be with Ripken), but is starting to get the hang of it sans Ripken, too. And then there is the total cuteness that is a puppy.

Additionally, for the first time in my life, I've had a glimpse of what being a stay-at-home-mom is like. HOLY CRAP! I've gone days without showering. I've gotten nothing really done in the hour or two during naptime when I feel like I should be getting something done. I'm behind in everything--work, laundry, email, phone calls, errands. I have moments when I feel like I can't even successfully do the *one thing* I'm supposed to be doing in taking care of the pup (see aforementioned "accidents"). I have also seen that I can possess NO patience at times and kinda scare myself with my reactions to Parker chewing, biting, eating everything in the yard, nipping at Ripken, etc. And yet, it somehow all seems worth it...most of the time.