Friday, March 14, 2008

Brat

Well, the little brat (Reagan) decided to test me today. Test really isn't the right word. I'm certain that she is not doing this on purpose, but it is frustrating nonetheless. I haven't been able to get her to tinkle on any of our hikes so this time I filled her up with canned dog food flavored water (hmmmm... my favorite too). We went for a nice long hike. Katie and Travis demonstrated their abilities to eliminate during hikes numerous times, but nada for Reagan. So when it was time to leave, I circled her around on the grass just trying to do something boring, so she could focus on going pee. I finally loaded Katie and Travis into the van and walked Reagan around the van over and over again. I think I spent an extra 30 minutes just trying to get her to pee. Finally, it was time to leave. I went to the gym while the dogs slept in the van. By the time we arrived home, it had been about 3 hours since she drank her flavored water, so she had to go by now and we had already had multiple successes with going potty in the front yard so I thought that this would be a piece of cake. Nope. So I put her in her crate. I tried again after 30 minutes. Nada again. I was very tempted to just put her in the backyard because I knew she would pee as soon as she stepped off the patio, but I was determined to win this. Finally at 7:55 (her last chance before Survivor) we have success. I cheered, praised, and gave her some cheese. She was obviously pleased with herself and now she was allowed free time in the house.

Later on, she was sleeping on her bed when I decided to pester her to test out her reaction. She was hard to wake up, but when she did come to, she looked at me and gave me a "leave-me-alone-I'm-resting" growl. So I verbally scolded her and slipped the bed out from under her and she suddenly found herself lying on the hardwood floor. "Its my bed and I just happen to let you sleep on it, Ms. Reagan." I think she got the point.