Puppy Progress

Well, it seems we are starting to get the whole "crappin' in the house" thing under control.  The puppies haven't had an accident in the house since last week sometime.  Its amazing what happens when you stop buying the 50 pound bag of "premium" dog food for $20 and starting getting dog food with something other than corn filler in it (Thank you Purina Pro Plan.  Veterinarian recommended.  Mom tested).  We are under no illusion that potty training is over, but it is certainly not as stressful.

With most puppies, the end of the "going to bathroom in the house" phase usually means the beginning of "we want to chew on everything" phase.

Yeah!

The puppies, like most grand kids, are constantly spoiled and have more toys than they know what to do with.  Trainers recommend giving only one or two toys to dogs so that they learn what is and isn't theirs - too many toys confuse them.  Tammy must have not been paying attention and thought she heard "give only one or two toys A DAY (emphasis added)..."  But, hey, doctor's orders and so forth.  The puppies have so many toys to play with that, when they are all out on the floor, it is impossible to sneak up on anyone due to the constant squeaky sounds as you step on them.

The obvious solution was....buy something.   In this case, a fairly nice (warning Will Robinson), but inexpensive wicker basket to store all the toys.  So, the basket was placed in the corner, and the toys were placed in the basket.

Perfect!

That is, until the puppies decided since all of their toys were in the basket, the basket must be one of their toys.  We've been pretty good at watching them and giving a shout when they start nibbling, but the other day I made the mistake of wandering off for a few minutes.  When I returned, the puppies had chewed off and scattered a large portion of the top of the basket.  When I finally came back into the room and found the mess, the puppies both looked up at me as if expecting praise for what they had done - much the same way a young child looks when they hand you a crayon drawing of something inexplicable.

Instead of praise, they got the "wrath of Todd", which in this case is mostly a lot of yelling followed by laughing under my breath as they scattered.  And scatter they did - right under Tammy's work desk where they spend  much of their day sleeping.   I grabbed the camera for a quick video, but not before cleaning up the splintered basket (force of habit).  The video is  a little dark at the end, but you get the picture.