Dog Days Are Over

And so the new dog parenting continues.  It would seem we're experiencing a bit of separation anxiety.  By we, I mean Heisman.  During his first week with us, we were crating him in the morning and enclosing him in the guest hallway and bathroom with his water bowl, a puppy pad, and toys in the afternoon.  Two afternoons in a row, we came home to scenes like this:

That blue and white mess is the remnants of the unused puppy pad.  Clearly someone was either very unhappy or very bored.  Based on the amount of crying we've heard, we're thinking the former.

On another afternoon, I came home from work and found him in the enclosed hallway and VERY excited to see me (ALWAYS very excited - there's a whole face/hair licking routine that we're trying to train him out of, which is a little sad because it's SO cute and sweet, but it's not polite).  I checked the bathroom for accidents and saw this on the bathmat:

Clearly there was an accident and L must have been in a hurry, right?  Sort of.  There was an accident, but when I asked L about it, he had no idea what I was talking about.  Notably, there was not one single square of toilet paper left on the roll, but L is occasionally known for not putting a new roll on, so I thought nothing of it.  The real story is that apparently Heisman used the rug instead of his puppy pad, then immediately discovered the toilet paper, pulled it all off the roll, and SOMEHOW managed to blot up his own accident.  WHO'S IMPRESSED???  I sure was.  I wish he could talk.  He also peed on L one day at lunch (apparently there was pee on every article of L's clothing, including his coat) and on another day, Heisman had an accident in his crate.  You know what makes you feel like a terrible puppy parent?  When your puppy can't hold it and has to go in his crate.  Poor Heisman was so upset when I got home.  Since then, we've started moving Heisman's crate into the living room during the day and leaving him there both morning and afternoon.  L usually tries to turn on the TV or iPod for some background noise, too, and I reload Heisman's kong toy each evening with treats and seal it with peanut butter and then freeze it.  So far, this has made for a happier, calmer pup when I get home each night.

We took Heisman with us to Dallas for Christmas.  Like any new, proud parents, we wanted to show off our new little guy and introduce him to his relatives.  I had high expectations for how the meet and greet with Boomer would go and, for the most part, they were fulfilled.

The first day and a half involved lots of snuggling and napping with both pups on the couch.  After that, Heisman just really wanted to play with Boomer ALLTHETIME, and poor Boomie was just not that interested in Heisman's energy level. However, Boomer was very patient and kind and tolerant of young Heisman. The funniest part was the night we got in.  I have never thought of sweet Boomer as being a big dog.  Compared to Heisman, Boomer is HUGE.  We couldn't stop laughing about this the entire time we were at my parents' house.

My mom gave Heisman a variety of clothing (natch).  We have a little argyle sweater, a fleece turtleneck, and a puffer coat, complete with a fur-lined hood (faux, obvi). Heisman likes the turtleneck the best, but he doesn't mind the puffer coat too much in colder weather.  He wears the sweater indoors only at the moment.  This was his first experience with snow on Christmas day:

Heisman was not impressed.  Immediately after this, he looked up at me like, "Seriously, Mom?  What the deuce is this?  I'm going inside," and then he ran straight to the backdoor.

Since then, we've heavily reinforced his paper training and signed him up for puppy school (we start next Wednesday).  We think he's cutting some new molars because we're in a heavy chewing mode.  Just like a human baby, he wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth, including hands, our noses, hair, etc.  Any tips on how to stop the nipping and chewing??  I know this is just the beginning of the teething - he's due to lose his baby teeth in the next month or two.

The best part about Heisman is how well L has responded to him.  L has told me more than once that he just loves Heisman so much.  I about fell off the couch the first time he walked over and professed his love to Heisman.  I seriously never saw that coming, and especially not within the first week and a half of owning him.  Just proof that we really did get the right pup for us.