Must... stay... strong...

I guess the novelty and the "unconditional omg you're so freakin cute you could never do anything wrong" is slowly starting to wear off. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sick of Derby and no way do I want to get rid of him, but maaaaaaaaaan this week has been rough. Here's a brief rundown of the two worst days:

Monday - Derby came to work with me as he did last week, but over the weekend he forgot everything we had established about where to go potty at work. Needless to say, we had several accidents in the office. Then monday night Tritia and I had to go to a concert we bought tickets for ages ago. (btw, we saw Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell, Rihanna, and Kanye West at the Nokia Theatre... amazing amazing show)

So Derby was left at home alone in the fort, or so we thought. Turns out he escaped the fort by jumping up on the couch, climbing onto the coffee table, and jumping down. So we came home to a tired roommate who had to stay up to watch the dog (since there was no longer a confined space to trap him in), a peepee on the stairs, and a poopie in the computer room. nice.

Tuesday - Worst day ever... Derby was still being horrible at work and had a few more accidents. Then when I took him outside to potty he bolted around the side of the building to explore. He wasn't trying to get away but he wanted to check out the unseen area. I had to chase him down and yell at him and grab him before something bad happened. This freaked me out enough that I decided I could no longer let him outside at work without a leash. In addition to all of this Derby was biting really hard... they are play bites, or possibly excitement bites, but he needs to learn that he can't bite that hard... just one more thing to work on. Tuesday was so tiring and stressful that I had to just give Derby to Tritia when I got home from work and took a long time out.

Anyhow, things are looking up the last couple of days... still having a few accidents but things are back on the improvement track. I don't want to focus completely on negatives so I will say that he's doing better. He has "sit" and "down" understood pretty well. He's also showing improvement on his "fetch" and "drop it" commands. He still hates his leash, but at least he'll walk with it on now, and he still bites too much but it seems that he's not biting as hard.

Overall, he's still super cute and I love him to death... but man is this tough. Must... stay... strong...

Busy day

Derby woke me up this morning at 3am. With my eyes practically closed I took him outside. Within seconds he dropped the most giant deuce I have seen yet from him. Seriously. Picture the chocolate soft serve at your local buffet... with the large bowl. Nice.

With the dirty deed done, we headed upstairs and got a few more hours of sleep. Woke back up at 7 and headed to the vet at 8. Derby's first trip to the vet (with us at least) went great. The vet saw him and gave him the necessary vaccination shot, and that was that. Simple stuff... my only complaint was that our vet talked to Derby with the most annoying baby voice ever. I would've smacked her on the head to get her to knock it off if I could've.

Now we're at home, and Tritia's parents are here to visit the new addition to the family. My mom is also here, with my grandma, my 2 nieces, and my nephew. We might have even more people over to visit later. Man... if it's like this with a new dog, what's it gonna be like if we have a kid? oy vey...

Typical

Johan: Hey Derby! Come over here!

Derby: I think the guy-that-spends-every-second-with-me is talking to me... but who the heck is Derby? Oh well, I'm coming!

J: Good Derby, now go potty! Go potty!

D: Hmm, what's this? *sniff sniff* Hey nice, that's my poop.

J: Go potty! Go potty!

D: Hey check out that leaf, I'm gonna go grab it!

J: Derby, come here, go potty!

D: Gotcha leaf! Now I'm gonna eatcha! Ew, you're not very tasty.

J: Derby don't eat that! Come here!

D: I think he's calling me again.

J: Derby, come here!

D: Yeah, I'm sure he's calling me. What do you want?

J: Good Derby, go potty!

D: My poop again? Why does he want me to smell my own poop? I'm just gonna sit down right here.

J: You don't have to potty? Ok let's go in.

D: Finally, heading inside, time to play with my stuffed monkey!

J: Fetch your monkey Derby! Fetch!

D: Oh crap, I gotta poop.

Derby day 5

Potty training keeps rolling along. I am happy to report that Derby had no accidents at home yesterday. Oh wait, he had one small peeing accident, but I'll chalk that one up to excitement from playing. It came with no warning! But it seems as though Derby has already figured out where he should pee while he's at home and in the "fort". He can run outside by himself if i leave the sliding glass door open for him.

At work it's another story. He peed inside 3 times yesterday, and has already pooped inside once this morning. I'm no dog whisperer, but if i had to guess, it's because he hasn't established a good potty area here. At home, when we take him out, there's only a small yard so all of his potties are generally within a small range of each other. At work there's a whole large parking lot for him, so I don't think he's found his spot yet.

Other than pottying, he's been a great dog. He no longer whines we put him in his crate at night, nor does he whine when I put him in his pen at work. He just quietly goes about his thing, napping or playing with his toys. Sigh... if only he never had to potty, he'd be the perfect dog!

Pictures

As promised, some better pictures for ya'll. In the first you'll see our temporary furniture fort in the living room... so far so good. It allows us to sit with Derby and keep him company and watch tv, and also has access to the sliding glass door so he can go outside quickly for potty training. The second and third pictures are just better shots of him, you can see his coloration best in the second picture. And it's almost bedtime in the 4th pic. Speaking of bedtime, I'm exhausted... goodnight!

Derby goes to work

Day 3 of the adventure...

Yesterday Tritia stayed at home with Derby all day. She made a fort out of our couches, coffee table, cushions, and pillows to confine him to a portion of our living room. I'll have to take pictures of it later, it's pretty funny. (Think post apocalyptic Mel Gibson movie with a junk fort made out of cheap furniture and colorful pillows... awesome, no?) We've begun to try to train Derby to go potty outside. So far his record is:

Sunday - 3 indoor pees, 1 indoor poop (sorry Brian)
Monday - 3 outdoor pees, 1 indoor pee, 2 outdoor poops, 1 indoor poop
Today - 2 outdoor pees, 1 indoor pee, 2 indoor poops

... yeah, this could be a losing battle... but on we shall carry!

Today Derby is at work with me. He's in a 4'x4' pen with cardboard on the ground. He's been really whiney all day, but I can't really blame him since he's stuck in such a small area. I took him out a few times and I pet him when I can, but I can tell he is sad. Oh well, gotta establish myself as the pack leader and all that junk! (Bless you Cesar Milan) Oh, we've also begun "sit" training and "fetch" training... that's going better than the pottying... you know, no poop involved makes it a bit easier. That's the update... pictures to come.

Derby Pup to the Rescue!

What did we get ourselves into? Ohhh man... we've been wanting to get a dog but I'm not sure we wanted one this soon. I guess I should've known better when we set off to the pet store to check out the dogs.

2 hours later, we had fallen in love with the cutest Eski-apso ever. That's a mix between an American Eskimo and a Lhasa Apso for those of you who didn't know... heck I'm not even totally sure what that means. He's awesome but we're in for a tough first few months. We've already had one accident in the house... just a little pee on the carpet. One of many I'm sure!

Here's one picture for now. It was tough to get any great ones because it's night time, and he's still really active. Anyway........ here's Derby! :)















Let the adventure begin!