I'm a bit of a clean freak and like my house to be tidy. Don't get me wrong,y I'm by no means OCD about it, in fact, I'm as untidy as everyone else in the house It's more like my dad, who is an oOCD cleaner, is sitting on my shoulder shaking his head with that disapproving, "I didn't raise you to be a slob" look on his face. Bless him, if he were living here he'd be running himself ragged trying to help me claw my way back to some semblance of order.
I had to move my whole bedroom around to accommodate Princess Lexie's huge cage bedroom with en suite bathroom. The cage is so big I have put a puppy training pad on one end and she has had one or two 'accidents' but in general we seem to be getting the hang of the night time cage training.
She has come to recognise mine and my husband's voices and cries when she can't get to one of us. My husband is a night owl and usually goes to bed after 12 so we have established a routine whereby she doesn't eat anything after 6pm so that she goes to the toilet at about 10 at the latest. She sleeps in her new cosy pink fluffy bed at my husband's feet till he goes to bed, when he puts her in her cage and I wake up at 6 when she starts whining to go out. Sometimes she goes back to sleep for another hour when everyone wakes up to start their day but at other times she's a typical toddler and is ready for play time!
Kaydee (my 6 year old daughter) and Lexie's relationship remains strained to say the least. Kaydee goes hysterical every time Lexie comes near her as she hasn't mastered the art of displaying dominance over her. I told her Lexie just wants to play with you because she loves you so much and she said, "No! She just wants to bite me!" She reminds me on a daily basis that she didn't want a dog! Sadly in the democracy that is our family she was outvoted 5-1. This would have been a more reasonable 4-2 (which was actually 6-0 in favour of not getting a puppy as I had the very decisive majority vote, being the one who would inevitably bare the brunt of it) had I actually stood my ground but those puppy dog eyes grabbed their opportunity and she sank her claws firmly into my heart.
Potty training during the day is currently at dismal failure status. I let her out every time I think she needs the toilet and she'll have a wonderful romp and snuffle around the garden with no purpose other than to consume my dwindling time and, when I bring her back inside, 5 minutes later there's a puddle or a poop on the floor! I think she does it deliberately now because shortly after that follows what is rapidly becoming her favorite game, chase the mop!
Thursday she goes for her 2nd lot of inoculations and a chip to add to the collar around her neck in, what I fear to be, a futile attempt at protecting her from being nicked. I'm sure that the day she does slip past our guard and gets out, she'll be snapped up and whisked away never to be seen again! We have replaced the fence post that had the hole in it after Pixie very kindly showed her that she could jump through it to a whole new big world just waiting to be explored! I think we'll have to look at reinforcing the gate next as she managed to squeeze through that too and took great delight in us running like hysterical chickens after her.
So the verdict so far? During the good times when she is calm and snoozing and cuddly she shores up enough brownie points to carry her through the demonic phase that seems to possess her periodically during the day!
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