My Job

I've been staying home with the dogs during these formative days, attempting to teach them such things as navigating the doggy door and going potty outside.

Bella was the first to master use of the doggy door. Baxter, on the other hand, is still a bit of a lazy boy and would really rather I just open the door for him and let him walk through; humans get to, so why shouldn't he? Fortunately, he has mastered this skill. In fact, just a few minutes ago as I prepared to write this post, I sensed that parental sound of silence and immediately went to "Uh-oh, this can't be good." Racing out to the kitchen (their home of late) they were no where to be found. I looked outside and lo and behold, there they were! All on their own! No coaching! Through the dog door! Our kids are growing up! One job done.

Going potty outside is another obligatory chore. Bella is pretty good at this as long as she's not trapped in their pen. Baxter, well, he doesn't even show signs that he's doing his business - he just stands there and pees (a boy thing, maybe?).

Let me back up a bit. Their pen is a child's pen with bright red, blue, and yellow colors, with an attached musical/noise activity center. It has a door on the front so they can walk in and out if it's unlocked; if not, they're trapped! Several buttons on the activity center play different nursery rhymes, and it's just low enough on the pen wall to start playing a tune or two with the bump of a bum during a rather heavy scuffle between the two. Here's a recent video showing Bella going a little cuckoo over those buttons, as Baxter is glad she has something else to keep her busy rather than chewing on his ears.




Back to the issue at hand: potty training. With puppies this small, peeing is not really a big issue for us - cleaning it up, that is. It's only about a Tablespoon. Poop is another story. While any one "job" is not of great quantity, the number of times these dogs poop is amazing. I wish I could poop that many times in a day. It's a veritable poop factory around here. At least we know that part works!

My job? As the day progresses, it goes like this:

1. Get up after Margaret gives me the fair warning signal, "I'm leaving now!"
2. Pour much needed coffee.
3. Teach puppies to go outside through the dog door.
4. Distract with chew toys so they don't eat my slippers and pajamas.
5. Take photos/video of adorable puppies.
   
6. Clean up poop.
7. Clean up more poop.
8. Teach puppies to go back into the house through dog door.
9. Take photos/video of adorable puppies.
   
10. Give them puppy treats in hopes they'll settle down for a nap.
11. Let them sleep and get some much needed work done.
12. Hear nursery songs.
13. Repeat steps 3-12 -- all day long.
14. Take more photos/video of adorable puppies.
    

It's a dog's life, I tell ya.