Kennel Training

Oh how this little puppy has changed our lives. Josh and I had decided even after marriage, we did not want to try to have kids for awhile. Mostly because we want to be selfish and enjoy each other for a year or two. Truthfully, the biggest part of that for me is SLEEP! I am greedy with sleep, I LOVE it, if I don't get my 8 hours, you probably do not want to be around me. Well, I guess we should have applied that same logic to a puppy, huh?

Needless to say, the past 4 nights have been long...and quite wearing. Poor Josh is having to pep talk me through the whole kennel training thing. The puppy is really doing great. But he cries when we put him in his kennel at night, and it is a pathetic, horrible sound. As an animal lover to the core, his little cries hurt me! I guess now I know what people mean when they say they can't stand hearing their kids cry. (Yes I did just compare mommies with children to me and my puppy, so?)

Basically, because we live in an apartment, it is absolutely impossible to have to get up the 5 times he wants to in the night and put his leash on, walk him all the way outside and stand there in the freezing February temperatures that Colorado has blessed us with. Well, not impossible per se...but I can tell you its definitely not on my list of favorite things. At night we have a puppy pad on the tile floor of our bathroom and when he cries, that's where we take him. It's been going fine, Charlie likes it too because he's so tiny he hates going out in the cold. The only problem with this method is that once he goes potty, he has to go back into his kennel...and he just does not understand that. I feel like we are doing something wrong. Josh says its because we don't put him in his kennel during the day, so he is not used to it. Because of this theory, I am typing this while my baby Charlie SLEEPS in his kennel. Don't tell Josh this, but I think he may be right. He is acting today like the kennel is a safe place that he can relax in. He only cried a little bit and then just fell asleep.

I can almost hear the Hallelujah chorus! Up til now, he would only sleep cuddled up next to me, and so then when I would move to go do something, he would wake up and follow me. I really have not gotten anything done the past couple days. Well, besides playing with a puppy to tire him out and chasing him around to make sure he doesn't pee on the carpet (which, despite all my efforts he has done plenty of times now)

All of have to say during this ordeal is thank God for my amazing fiance, who shows great patience and love to both this new puppy and to me. And thank God for Fantastic spray and puppy pads so my entire apartment does not smell like puppy pee. Oh, and of course, thank God for bringing us little Charlie. <3 He really is such a sweet, sweet blessing despite the little hiccups we have been through so far. I wouldn't change it for the world.