Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Baxter's Week

I have to apologize for not posting as often as I should; it's been a busy couple of weeks around here.

In an effort to socialize our dogs a little more (yeah, that's it...), we decided to take a trip to the beach. The kids haven't seen or felt sand before and it was only a 50% chance of rain so... WHAT WAS I THINKING? 50% chance of rain = 100% likely.


As it turns out, the Hood To Coast Relay ends up in Seaside (why didn't I think of this either?) so as we arrived at the end of the Seaside Prom, all we could see was a sea of tents and the Finish line! Luckily, the race had just started at the top of Mount Hood so there weren't any spectators yet. This gave us a chance to let BnB feel sand for the first time.

When Bella first stood on it, she immediately dipped her nose in it. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that because we had one dog going one way and the other going the other.

Since BnB's birth owner was running in the race, we decided to take their picture in front of the Finish line. Baxter, who hardly ever goes poo while on a walk, decided to unload right there on the Finish line. Was there a message in this? One will never know.

The trip was called on account of rain. We didn't see or touch water while in Seaside. Next time, we'll take them back when we can run wild on the waters edge.

We spotted this blue heron though:


On Sunday, BnB got to go play with a lovable Boxer named...get this...Bella. They had a blast!



Monday Puppy Boot Camp started for our dear doh-dee-doh boy, Baxter. As mentioned in my last post, Baxter is having trouble discerning the difference between outside and inside when it comes to potty training. Let's just say Baxter is a little slow on the up-take with a few things - his ears were up ears for a few weeks, then all of a sudden, they went back down again. Silly boy.

I had read that sometimes it's a good idea to put a bell on the door where you want the dogs to go out and by some Pavlovian miracle they'll put two and two together. So, I rigged up this small cow bell on the dog door. I let them sniff at it and lick it first, thinking that would help them along the way. Instead, they were both terrified of it and wouldn't go in or out. Bella was so afraid of it, she was panting and giving it a very wide berth if she even had to walk near it. Needless to say, we bagged that idea.

Anyway, Maggie is taking the week off and during that time she's been putting Baxter through the puppy paces, in hopes of getting him trained by the end of her "staycation". Her strategy has been to keep him in his crate for several hours at a time, and upon his release, she promptly takes him outside. When not in his crate, he's tethered to her at all times in the house. So far, this seems to be working quite well. It helps keep him focused on his humans, and us humans on him.


We're also leaving the doggy door closed so he (and Bella) learn to "hold it" for longer periods of time. Last night, however, I failed to key in on the clues Bella was sending, so she pee'd on the kitchen floor, not once, but twice. Since I've been at work during the day, I didn't get trained very well and need to go through Puppy Boot Camp myself!

Since Baxter has become one with his crate, he showed off his crate talents when we put him to bed the other night. He learned to cover himself up! Most Corgis don't like this though, so I suspect we won't be seeing too many repeat performances.


And while our boy is a little slow about some things, he's the first one to get tail feathers!


All in all, I'd say this was Baxter's week. While he's a challenge at times, we so love this little guy. Can you blame us?

1 comment:

betty said...

love the last picture of Baxter; such a classic corgi pose! Bella doing her business at the finish line must have been fun to see, bet it brought a few laughs if others were around

cute pictures of BnB playing with the boxer; unfortunately Koda doesn't like boxers, but perhaps that's because one attacked him one time

good luck with potty training; you think it would be easy with two, one learning from the other

betty