Dog Days

Twinkle has been a Morguess for a week now, and things are going pretty well. We're trying to figure out this crate-training thing. Our understanding is that she should be spending the majority of her time in her crate until she's about 4 months old. She is supposed to take her meals in her crate, which is part of the potty-training process, as dogs generally won't eliminate in the same area where they eat. We take her out of her crate several times a day to go outside and do her business, and reward her with effusive praise and treats for a job well done. We've also been allowing her more time to play in the house outside of her crate, which, naturally, has resulted in a few accidents - but not many. Seriously, in a week, she's peed in the house once and pooped twice - not bad. She sleeps in her crate all night long and seems to be pretty content there. The first night she woke me up with her whimpering, which I took to mean that she needed to go outside, but since then, she hasn't made a peep at night and has never had a potty accident at night.

She's a really sweet, playful little thing! I am loving having a little dog as opposed to a big dog, which I never thought I'd say. Everything about her is smaller - the amount of food she eats, the messes she makes, her bark, everything. And she's completely portable.

As for the kids . . . Kevin adores her and really is the only one who is not skittish around her. She's small and moves quickly, and jumps as if she has little springs in her legs, and the other kids, unfortunately, have been influenced by Daisy's long-time terror of dogs, so they're nervous around Twinkle. All but Daisy and Finn will pet her and play with her, however, but they don't like it when she gives chase, which puppies like to do.

Daisy hasn't made much progress over the week. She still likes Twinkle more in theory than in reality. She screams and cries if Twinkle is allowed out of her crate to play. It's tiring and frustrating, and I certainly don't want Twinkle to become skittish and afraid of Daisy. I keep hoping that this will all change in time, that Daisy will get used to having a dog in the house and will grow attached to her and outgrow her fear. I hope, I hope.

Twinkle seems to have a particularly strong liking for Finn. (I don't want to hear it's because he's special and she senses that!!) I'm thinking it's because he's small like her, usually on the ground and at eye level with her. She's pretty aggressive with her affections towards him, and in truth, he's not crazy about the attention.