Monday, July 16, 2007

Puppy Update... eyes, leashes, and burning the midnight oil

Sigh... Bella's eye went back to normal the night we got home from the vet after an evening nap. (It seems that when she's asleep, the eye relaxes and the eyelid flips back over.... either that or that REM action helps it along.) Around 4:00 on Saturday, she was playing in her basket and rubbed her face against it popping it back out. Unfortunately, it's been over a day and a half and it's still protruding. Things are not looking good on that front and I'm very sad about the possibility of surgery.

Every day is a new one and each day presents new accomplishments and challenges. The little porker is now 3.3 pounds so she finally fits in a harness without being able to tuck her chin down to chew it. So, we've begun our venture into leash work. That itself presents a new set of behaviors to learn. Once she learns that the leash is NOT a tug-of-war toy, things will be better. She's resistant to go to the bathroom on the leash and instead flips her body around and tries to chew it. Nigel did the same thing at first and got over it. I'm trying to not let her out in the front without being on the leash so she'll learn that it's that or nothing. She loves to be outside but at night, it's especially dangerous to be loose. When she gets in that hyper mode, she runs around at super-speed and I can barely catch her. I'll continue to let her off leash in the side and back yards (fenced in) but front yard now is leash territory.

She's also starting to venture back into the parlor area again instead of staying near the kitchen table area which makes it tougher for me to get anything done on the computer because I have to constantly get up and bring her back where I can see her. The potential for peeing indoors is too great over there, not to mention the ability to slip under the couch. We don't want to go there again!

She's also been REALLY hyper in the evenings and is very mouthy and nippy. The other night I was outside with her at 1:30 in the morning because she'd bark every time I put her in her crate. She wanted to be up running around and playing. I couldn't even keep her on my lap for "quiet time" because she'd nip at me and try to wiggle out of my arms. I kept bringing her outside in case the barking was due to needing to go to the bathroom. She didn't.. instead she took the opportunity to bite the leash and try to get me to pull it. She was spinning around like a wild woman. I couldn't drop the leash and let her run off in the dark and I couldn't get her to calm down either. So, it was back to the crate, hoping for the best (that she didn't really have to go) and tuning out her barking until she fell asleep. Needless to say, a let a few choice words fly and I was not too pleased with this late night habit. Two nights in a row, she was out of control at night and didn't want to go to bed.

Then... there are times when she's so cuddly and kissy... my favorite Bella! It's always an adventure that's for sure. And, just so there's no mistaking it: I love that little girl sooo much!

Technorati Tags:

Labels: , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home