[nagdu] Where your dog sleeps at night, etc.

AnnaLisa Anderson annalisa at sector14.net
Thu Feb 25 02:47:29 UTC 2010


Hi Jennifer,

Don't be afraid to ask questions.  I sure wish I'd had a list like this to
go to when I got my first dog, but email was in its infancy then and nobody
had thought of list serves yet. <smile>

I have been very fortunate that both my dogs have had very good house
manners.  Neither of them  has felt the need to roam around the house at
night, and I have felt no need to tie down or crate either of them.
Everyone else is right though, when you first bring the new dog home, you
will want to keep it either near you on leash or on tie down until you get
to know your dog better and to teach them the ground rules.  In the case of
my current dog, I didn't have to keep her on leash or tie down very long,
though I did have a tie down chain on the bed for several months and did put
her on it when going to bed at night, even though she really didn't need it.
She didn't mind either and sort of expected it.  I have a fleece mat for
Sunny to sleep on, which I bought from PetEdge.  Don't remember the brand
name though, but it's fleece on both sides, and she seems to like it.

I do have a story about giving freedom a bit too soon with Sunny...  After
about a week of being home from school and displaying very good manners, I
decided to try giving her some freedom in  the house, in a limited fashion
at first.  She did pretty well but of course had to try to get into the cat
food, but she responded very well to voice commands and immediately left it
alone when I told her to, and she leaves it alone most of the time now
unless she thinks she can get away with it. <grin> Same with the litter
box...  I don't have a good place to keep cat food or the boxes up high (I
have two boxes and three cats).  She does like kitty crunchies, so we have
to watch her a bit on that one. Again, she leaves it alone mostly, unless
she knows no one is paying attention... <smile>  Oh, both the litter boxes
are the kind with covers on them.  Anyway, I digress...

After I started giving her limited freedom, one night I was doing laundry
and had left my condo for a few minutes to go to the laundry room.
Unbeknownst to me, Sunny had snuck out the door with my boyfriend when he
went outside.  She led him a very merry chase before he finally caught her
and got her back inside. <grin>  Fortunately we have a good sized driveway
and parking lot area, so she wasn't in the street.  At the time I had no
clue it was happening, when I had left for the laundry room, Sunny was safe
in the house.  We can laugh about it now, of course.  Needless to say, she
lost her freedom again after that for a while.

Anyway, like others have said, these are all things you will learn when you
go for training.

That's too bad your family has to be so negative about this.  Will your
parents be bringing you to the school, or will you fly?  Just wondering.
When I went to Leader Dogs for the first time, my parents drove me there so
they got to see where I would be staying and I think they got a tour of the
school and the kennels, etc.  I still think that would be a great idea if
your parents could do something similar.  I'm wondering how much of your
parents' resistance is simply fear of the unknown.  Did you have pets
growing up?  Do your parents even like dogs?  Just some thoughts.  I'm glad
you are taking a firm stand with them, and I sure hope they will come
around.  Who knows, maybe there will come a day when they love your dog and
can't imagine when you didn't have one.

AnnaLisa and Sundance





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