Hi all.  I’m still on a bit of a hiatus, mainly due to the fact that I now have 4 animals (one of whom is a house-guest) and 3 guests staying here, there simply isn’t time enough to do regular updates.  I know that many of you are curious about how things are going with the new pup, so let me give you a glance into my irrational world!

Codiak (and Casey) go out to potty every hour on the hour.  We are not kennel training, nor are we using puppy pads.  I’m home all day, so no excuse to kennel train.  At night, every 3 hours.  The rule is: the number of months + 1 = the number of hours the puppy can hold his bladder.  As he gets older, we will be able to go longer and longer.

Puppies chew and they especially love computer cords.  I have to spray them down, at least daily, sometimes a couple of times a day with a bitter apple spray.  It does seem to work.  There is a bit of sibling rivalry going on and if Codiak gets a bone, Casey will want the same bone that he’s got.  There’s been a couple of growling matches and it seems that Codiak has won most, but not all.  We’re still wondering who’s going to end up as the alpha (my guess is Codiak because Casey isn’t usually, but we’ll just have to wait and see.  I don’t treat Casey any different than Codiak–which I’ve read that if you have an older dog you SHOULD treat the older dog different.  I want them to decide who’s going to be dominate, but if I had my druthers about it…)

Sometimes, throughout the day, I think to myself, WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING?  having two dogs (both are puppies, but one doesn’t understand and know the rules yet…there’s so many to LEARN!!)  It’s been a little bit stressful at times.  Meal times are hard, especially for just one person.  The dogs MUST be separated otherwise Codiak will eat Casey’s food!  That one was pretty easy for us to figure out.  The thing that’s been a little difficult is that Codiak will not give any indication that he has to go potty and then, go.  Casey will then pee right on top of it.  Of course they both get shouted at if we catch them, but if we don’t see them do it, there is nothing that can be done about it.  I’ll give it to Codiak, though, he’s really good about going potty outside when I take him out.  It took a long time to get Casey that reliable.

Anyway, it’s time to get going.  I’ll post pictures (and possibly a video or two) later.

Just a side note, the bitter apple spray DOES work.  Codi was just trying to chew the cords that have been sprayed and IMMEDIATELY jerked his head away with a look of disgust!  Yeeeeh! Our cords are saved!