Yesterday I mentioned that Gabby (my 2 1/2 year old Yorkie) and I were heading off to the first of 8 private sessions with a trainer (a sweet girl named Dory). You might wonder why now?? Why not when you first got her?? Well lots of reasons come to mind but probably the main one was that when we got her we still had our sweet, old, and very sick Cocker Spaniel, Wills! I was in the throws of feeding him fresh cooked chicken and letting him have some quality of life while running around behind him cleaning up after him!! He was so sick at one point that our vet did a blood transfusion while warning us that they don't offer much hope and if they do work...it's short-lived! Who knew Wills would, for the most part happily, live with his auto-immune disease for 3 years!
Wills on his first day with us!!!
Wills sporting his "field cut" fall of 2008 on medication and hanging in there!!
Gabby curled up in a chair by the fireplace...she loves a good fire!
At some point during this time I discovered Gabby wasn't a puppy anymore and she had developed a habit that I didn't like...going "potty" in the house. I decided it was because of Wills...she saw him at times, especially at the end, when he no longer had the energy to get up and go out the doggy door to the backyard! (at this point he was confined to the tile area of our house...the kitchen and laundry room :(! She could also smell (dogs have that ability to the nth degree). No amount of cleaning worked! After Wills passed away last December and the carpets were once again professionally cleaned I was determined that Gabby would get this finally!! So much for that thought...lots of travel, Chelsea and Gabby's snuggy buddy Kate going off to college...lots of travel this past fall without Gabby...
You get the idea! I decided that once the holidays and the traveling about was over for a bit we were going to focus on her and so Dory has come into our lives... Yesterday was informational day. I told Dory all about Gabby~the wonderful and the not-so-wonderful!! She listened, asked questions, shook her head, and said a couple of times "Oh, that's not acceptable."
These were my concerns:
1) That Gabby understands that potty takes place outside all of the time, not just first thing in the morning and during late afternoon walks!!
2) I want Gabby to follow a simple command CONSISTENTLY. When people come to the door I tell her to go to the window (we have a ceiling to floor dining room window. Her bed is there because she loves it...in the morning the sun comes in and she sunbathes! She also likes to watch the squirrels, lizards, and neighborhood people walking dogs, jogging, etc.) and most of the time she obeys (I only do this if she doesn't know the person). She can see the mailman and UPS guy just fine from the window! But at times she will wander over to the door (especially if it takes more than 45 seconds to deal with the situation at the door)!
3) I don't want Gabby jumping up on people. When our sweet little Claire comes to visit Gabby is beside herself...after all Claire is not that much bigger than Gabby and is full of energy. So we have that transition time in which Gabby just wants to jump on her and that is not okay with me (Gabby gets locked up and then she gets it. But we have to repeat the process the next morning when she sees Claire again) Claire isn't afraid of her but still she has baby skin and it scratches easily...same goes for my mother and father in-law. They are older and have that delicate skin. Gabby sees Mary Dodd and just starts jumping around...I am always concerned about her playfulness drawing blood with a mere scratch!!
Dory listened and said with a big smile "This is doable, not a problem. We will begin with the potty habit." So starting this morning Gabby and I are tethered together all day every day for a week. She has no freedom. She can't be more than 5 feet away from me. When we go out even in the back yard she has to be on the leash. If she goes to the bathroom sufficiently she can come in and have 30 minutes of free time off of the leash...no more! When I leave the house she needs to be in the laundry room. Her bed in the dining room window has to be earned...
This morning we got up and immediately went outside...she pottied as always. We came in the house and the leash went on (she doesn't get 30 minutes of free time first thing in the morning)! And here she is...very confused and seeming a bit depressed...leashed to me...five feet away!
And joy of joys it has decided to rain today...and apparently for the next three days. Have I told you about Gabby's aversion to rain?? This taking her out frequently is going to be a challenge...she doesn't even like to go in the grass after the water sprinklers have run!!!
Hmmmm...suppose she knows I am not holding the leash???
Oh my goodness...well, this is my life!!!
