One job pays me to read blogs and write blog entries. The other pays me, in part, to play with sex toys. Is this the life or what? Haha. On a serious note, I am utterly exhausted. I need better time management skills, more hours in a day, or both. I don’t know which. I do know that my mom is all butthurt about me not talking to her on the phone for hours on end or going out with her at least once a week, but damn, a girl’s gotta sleep at some point.
And to think I’m seriously considering getting a second Pug sometime in the next few months… actually, that probably wouldn’t be too bad. I’ve read that new dogs tend to follow and mimic the current dog, so in this case the hypothetical Pug puppy would copycat whatever Leah does, including using a washable pad on rainy and bitterly cold days, and otherwise holding it until it’s time to go outside (which Leah gets to do first thing in the morning, last thing at night, before being crated, and every 3-4 hours in between). Eh… for those of you who have had one successfully housebroken adult dog, and then added a second dog, how long did it take the newcomer to get into the routine?
Right now I am loading up my 320GB external hard drive with all six seasons of House. I can’t wait… even though I finished season six up last week, Dan and I are working through House together, and together we’re only halfway through season 2. So much House goodness, so little time! I can’t wait until we get to the episode where Wilson quotes True Blood!
I should probably go to bed soon, seeing as how I’m getting up early tomorrow to get the kids and I ready to head down to Philadelphia and spend the day with my boss at the Philadelphia Zoo and then a local pool club, but I suddenly got a second wind. Good thing, since there are emails to reply to, product reviews to write, blog entries to compose, and a million and one other things that I’m behind on…
When we got Danica it took her about two months to completely potty train her. It really wasn’t any easier to train her than it was Kumo.
As for mimicking, she did that SOME, but it’s not that easy. She learned to sit, down and stay and stuff pretty quickly but you have to take personality into account. Kumo is super laid back, never chewed up any shoes or toys or anything, never tried to steal food off the counter, never really had to worry about leaving him in the house for extended times.
But ohhhhhh Danica. DANICA! If you leave her in the house for five minutes alone she will destroy something. Anything she can get her paws/mouth on. She digs in the back yard. She will steal food and it will be gone in a SECOND if you turn your back. But, the good thing is that while Kumo will go in the crate if you give him the command, he’s not like totally in love with the thought. But Danica bounds into the crate if I pick up my keys or purse like WOOHOO! I LOVE THIS THING! She even sleeps in it when we are down stairs and she has free reign of the house.
So yeah, it really comes down to the personality of the dog. You can train any dog pretty quickly but personality will really dictate what kind of dog you get.
I’ve had Abbi for about 5-6 years now and she’s obviously fully trained and happy/content to have the full run of the house 24/7. We never crated her when she was a puppy (we were new dog owners, learning from our own mistakes to be honest).
Last week I also got Amber, who’s a one year old pedigree who has never been trained properly. She’s still having accidents in the house and doesn’t sit or give paw on command. She does, however, toddle over to her bed and lie down if you tell her to loudly enough. She sleeps there all night, too.
To some degree she does copy Abbi a lot. They eat at the same time, snooze at the same time and Amber follows Abbi around the house where ever she goes. I suppose she just wants a friend to play with all the time. They also sit up on the sofa and clean and paw each other, which is pretty cute.
I’d forgotten, however, how hard it is to train a dog to go outside to the toilet. I’ve managed to get little accidents happening all over the house to just on a matt at the back door. Now to train her to let us know she wants outside!
It is hard work having a second dog, but the laughter and happiness he or she will bring outweighs any problems.
We crate trained our second puppy and he potty trained very quickly (as in after the first week, he only had an accident in the house the day he was neutered). I think the key to getting a puppy to mimic an older dog is to be sure your new puppy is a lower energy dog than your current one. Otherwise your older dog will be unhappy being tormented and you’ll be unhappy with the training and behavior.
it didnt take long at all for our new pupppy to get into the swing of things, a couple weeks maybe. where are you geting the eppies of house??
Completely depends on the dog. We had a Cavalier King Charles’ spaniel before we got our Belgian Sheepdog and he would absolutely not mimic ANYTHING that our first dog did. Oh no, he had his own head and he used it in the most destructive ways. Granted, he was diagnosed with ADHD later in life, but still. Not all dogs are led by example. It really depends on the impression the other dog makes, I suppose. Not all dogs accept the older dog in the house as the “leader”. It can also turn on its head, and the older dog starts mimicking the new dog, pissing all over the place and misbehaving in a puppy-like fashion. I’ve seen it happen.
But thankfully, basic training for a new puppy doesn’t take long if he or she doesn’t pick up Leah’s habits.
So good luck, Pugs are easy dogs so there should be no issues!
Something I should have added and another commenter reminded me of. One thing that IS nice is that Kumo isn’t so dependent on US to always play with him. He and Danica play and play and play. It’s been great for him to have a companion dog.
Even though we take them to the dog park pretty much every single day, I think that it’s SO important for dogs to be socialized with other dogs. Kumo was always a happy dog but now that he has a sister he just seems “complete”.