Day Two: Oh god, what was I thinking?

Repeat after me:

This is only the second day. It will get better. This is only the second day. It will get better.

Last night was an eye-opener. Ellie was passed out from 9pm to 4am. At 4:10am, I woke up to her crying. Kane was awake as well, bleary and red-eyed and with a very long-suffering expression on his face. I managed to crawl off the couch to let her out of her crate, so she could go potty on her pee pads, as per my plan of the previous day. I picked her up and set her right down on them to prevent any late-night exploring or playing.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

Ellie stared at me with a "now what?" look. I stared back at her with a somewhat bemused, "don't you know?" look. And around the time we both started falling asleep waiting for her to pee, I grumbled, picked her up, and managed to shuffle zombie-like to the back door and let her outside. She piddled the second her wee little paws touched grass. I carried her back and put her in her crate, muttering under my breath about something I can't remember but was definitely grumpy and probably not repeatable. She went back to sleep after about 5 minutes of whining. I managed to shove Kane back over to get my spot back on the couch and fell back asleep as well.

And then 6:23 rolled around and I woke up to Ellie howling. Loud enough and desperately enough for Kane to be concerned, even. It was too soon for her to be let out again, so I moved around on the couch and talked to Kane a bit to let Ellie know someone was still in the room with her. After ten minutes she settled back down.

Only to do the same thing at 7:45. When she woke up again an hour later, I sighed and decided it was about time for me to get up anyways. I let her and Kane outside and fed them both when they got back in. Ellie's been doing very well on her Purina One and Eukanuba mix, with no bad poops, so I'm hopeful she'll do well when I finally switch over to Eukanuba. After that, she walked into her crate, plopped down, and passed out again, and Kane and I took the opportunity to catch up on more sleep.

Her personality has already started to come out more today. She's more independent outside, less likely to be directly underfoot, and boy does she watch Kane like a hawk! She's mimicking some of his behaviors (so I'll have a couple of grass grazers, I imagine, lol) and is starting to chase after him as he does his zoomies and tries to get her to play with him. God, she's so cute with her little wiggle-butt running and jumping around. I really can't wait to get my camera charger back so I can take some video.

She had her first exposure to a riding lawn mower today when the neighbors decided to mow their backyard. She was very inquisitive and tried to run over to investigate it; good thing I had her leashed. :-) When she did get spooked (the neighbor had to gun the engine once or twice to get out of a swampy area), she recovered quickly and soon she ignored the mower entirely. Belly rubs helped. She'll do anything for belly rubs!

I've begun to train her in earnest today after seeing her more relaxed. I play with her paws, stretching the toes, poking my finger between them. I look in her ears, rub them a little, and peel her lips back to look at her teeth. She was a little fidgety at first, but protip—give her a belly rub and she doesn't care! She's very smart and a quick learner, too. After holding her dish up once to make her sit before I put it down, she did it every time after that. She had her first exposure to the clicker as well. Click/treat, click/treat. I'm not sure if she's really catching on with that, but she was a little distracted and wanted to play more than anything so I stopped after only 4 or 5 clicks. I'll try again tomorrow, this time making her work for her morning food.

And I know you guys are going to hate me, but … I'm pretty sure she's already house-trained. *ducks the rotten tomatoes* She refuses to pee or poo on anything but grass. Not even her pee pads. I took her outside around 5 after her nap, and then fed her and played with her when she came back inside. Knowing she would have to potty soon, and determined to stick to the plan of her using the pee pads at some point, I put her in her expen and watched TV as I puttered around online. I was going to wait her out. Sooner or later she would have to go. Sure enough, she started to get fidgety, then fussed a bit. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, ready to jump in all ninja-like with my "go outside! go outside!" as soon as she squatted and then effusive praise.

Instead she continued to cry and then went and flopped down in her crate with a grumbling growl of frustration. False alarm then, I guessed. But no, she was out and pacing within a few minutes. I watched and waited again. Nothing. I knew she had to potty; she knew she had to go potty. And still nothing.

It was about this time, I made a post in dogsintraining on LJ: "GUYZ WAT DO I DOOO?" As usual everyone had great suggestions, but it wasn't until silverblaidd said, "dude, ur bein stoopidz" that I woke up and stopped trying to force her to un-housetrain herself so I could housetrain her over again. I scooped Ellie up, 2 and a half hours after she should have had to go potty, and took her outside. Where she piddled as soon as her wee paws touched the grass. No accidents today.

Kane was an excitement pee'er and a bit of a dirty dog, so I think that's what threw me off with Ellie. If Kane had to go and I didn't make it home in time, he went in his crate, no sweat. Even if he did make it until I got home, the second I approached the crate to let him out, he started peeing because he was so excited to see me, lol.

So …

My puppy house-trained herself on the second day home, and I feel useless.