Looking for trouble

Meiby has never gotten into the garbage. Mostly because we've always had a tall lidded garbage can. In the new house, the kitchen is very small and there isn't room for that can so we just have a small garbage can inside a cabinet. While I was installing this slide out track for the can the garbage was temporarily sitting out. Meiby didn't get into it but she was certainly interested. Here she is with her little chin resting on the edge of the can making lots of snorty, sniffing noises...

You'd think she would have been in it the first chance she got but she was left alone with it all day and didn't touch it. She's a very good pug!

Partypalooza 2009!

Emmitt is having a pug party... or rather, um, "obedience school" for pugs. Click to see who else is attending! See you at the party, Emmitt ;)

Mysterious Smells

Since it's been so cold this winter, as I've mentioned before, we trained Meiby to use puppy pads so she doesn't have to go outside it the sub-arctic weather. We don't have a lot of space in our little house so her puppy pads are placed on top of a rug in the kitchen. For about the last week or so there has been a lingering odor of urine floating around. I looked all over, in all the corners of the house for a pee spot but didn't find anything. I thought I was just going crazy. Then yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen floor and noticed that the rug was wet on the bottom (but not on the surface). I thought we had a leak or something but didn't find anything like that either. So I hung up the rug upside-down in the bathroom to dry. I left it for a few minutes with the fan on and when I returned, I suddenly knew what the wetness was. Apparently our rug sucks any moisture to the bottom and never looks wet, so I never knew she peed on it.

So, I washed the rug and placed it in a different spot in the kitchen, leaving her puppy pad where it was originally, but no longer on the rug. When I got out of the shower, I saw that there was a #2 but no #1 on the puppy pad, but thought maybe she just hasn't peed yet today. I got dressed and came back to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Then, mysteriously, my sock was wet! I looked and sniffed around but didn't see anything wet. So I felt around on the rug, still didn't feel anything wet. Then I turned it over and found a big wet circle. Somebody peed on my freshly washed rug! But Meiby doesn't know anything about it...

Someone's Been Naughty...

I told Meiby that she needs to be good so Santa will bring her treats... but she doesn't get it. It fact, I think she's grounded after yesterday. We've been leaving her loose while we're gone for short periods of time for several weeks now without incident. We'll leave a puppy pad out for her in case she needs it. We also close off the bedroom door (because, for some reason, she thinks the bedroom is a big litter box) and, generally she's very good on her own. She doesn't get into anything she shouldn't, etc.
Well, yesterday she pushed the pad upside-down and then pooped on the kitchen rug while we ran out to get some lunch. Then later, while I was at work, Nick left her loose for a couple hours while he went out to get some gifts. When he returned she had shredded the puppy pad and somehow gotten into the bedroom (must not have been properly latched and she pushed it open), pooped and peed on the carpet and then got into the garbage and shredded used kleenex all over the room. When Nick got home she was making a bunch of noise because she couldn't get out of the bedroom (the door shuts by itself and she has no nose to pry it open with.) I'm glad I wasn't there when he discovered what she had done. So after Nick cleaned up her mess he started wrapping presents and of course she's got to walk all over the paper and chase the scissors... but she's "helping" ...
I'm not at all surprised about any of this, though, except for the puppy pad shredding. I know she'll get into the bedroom garbage and poop in there any chance she gets, especially if she gets stuck in there, but she's never destroyed anything in the living room. I guess it's back to the crate for Meiby when we're gone... at least until after Xmas.

Coincidence?

This is the hook I used to make Meiby's sweater:

It's the one and only hook (out of probably 15) that she chose to destroy... I guess it's time to buy metal hooks :)

Oh, Pug...

Every time we think we have Meiby on a good, regular schedule, she goes and throws us off again. For a while she'd poop in the morning and again after dinner. Then she started going at lunch and before bed (so I'd be waiting outside forever in the morning while she just nibbles at the grass.) She loves to poop in the house. The longest no-poop-in-the-house streak we've had, ever, is a whole week. The we start thinking she gets it and then she turns around and does it again.

However, she NEVER pees in the house... until yesterday. I got home from work, let her run around for a bit, gave her dinner and was putting things away and getting ready to take her outside. Next thing I know, I look up and she's PEEING on the COUCH! WTF! Since I caught her in the act, I scolded her and took her outside immediately. The couple times she has peed in the house before (the first week when she didn't know what was going on) she always finds a towel or something like that to pee on so we now keep all towels and clothes off the floor. Since there was nothing on the floor to pee on, she decided that the blanket that covers the couch was a good place to pee. Unfortunately, it leeked right through to the couch. I was disappointed in her but we cleaned it up and moved on.

And then later that night, I was putting fresh flannel sheets on the bed (it's getting cold!) and she peed right on the dirty sheets I'd just taken off the bed. Twice in one day! Am I failing to read her signals or is she just getting lazy? At least it was the dirty sheets though. I would have been so mad if she peed on my brand new clean sheets! What goes on in that head of yours, Meiby?



How do you train your dog not to use the house as a toilet?