I sequestered Peaches to the kitchen while going out to the grocery store and meeting with the resident director to formally register Peaches as a pet I’m allowed to have. When I got home, though, she’d gotten out of the kitchen- I still am not sure how. Though she behaved well, really. Nothing was out of place, and she didn’t have any accidents. I was only gone for an hour or so, so I might just try and leave her alone in the house a little longer each time and see if she behaves. She’s housebroken, and she’s quickly figured out that she needs to sit by the back door and whine if she has to go, scampering over to my boots and her leash if I don’t notice her by the back door. I obviously wouldn’t leave her home alone too long, but on Mondays and Wednesdays she would have to be on her own for 6 hours. I don’t want to keep her in the tiny bathroom, and since classes are cancelled on Veteran’s day, I have almost a whole week to get her used to being good on her in the apartment. If she is still doing well, I’ll let her roam the house while I’m gone- if she has an accident, though, I’ll put her in the bathroom when I’m gone until she gains my trust again. She seems pretty well-mannered, though, and I don’t really feel that nervous about her having an accident. I continued teaching her “sit” and she’s doing great at it- I also need to teach her to calm down because she has separation anxiety and can be very jumpy and hyper when I come home. I didn’t pet her until she stopped jumping at me, and I figure I’ll just do that to teach her she needs to be calm to be petted when I get home. All in all, I’ve had to do minimal training and I’m so relieved she’s adjusted so quickly, making it a lot easier to be able to care for her properly. 

College Chronicles

Me and Peaches just got up for the day- well, I did. Peaches wants to keep sleeping, so I let her come up on the couch and curl up. I want to train her to sleep in her doggie bed beside me, so I only put her on the couch after I turned on the lights to show her sleepy time is when she can’t be on the couch. She actually did stay in her doggie bed by my side the whole night. 

I woke up like usual but at 5am I had to get up to use the restroom, and it woke her up enough that I came back and saw she was whining by the door. I’m becoming more and more pleasantly surprised that she’s already decently house-trained. She had one accident when she first got here, but a lot of dogs do that in a new environment. Other than that, she’s caught on to sitting by the back door and whining when she has to go to the bathroom. If I don’t notice, she’ll walk over to where I keep her leash and my boots, and she whines there. Either way she very much knows to let me know she wants to go outside, so I took her out at 5am before getting back into bed, and then we both dozed off again. 

As time goes on I’ll be further training her and making sure she’s used to apartment and a decent routine. I’m working teaching her ‘sit’ and once she masters that I’ll try stay or lie down. She doesn’t need to know too many tricks, just the basic things. She’s so precious- I’m so glad I got a 2 y/o dog- that way I know her personality and her approximate full-grown size. Plus, I’d rather adopt a dog a couple years old anyways because often times dogs get ignored as soon as potential owners see their age. 

Milo adopted a total sweetheart of a dog that’s 8 years old, and he’s such a gentle and cheerful dog that it’s shocking he was in the shelter for over a month. Apparently, though, it’s because people saw the number 8 and kept walking. I 100% recommend getting a dog that’s at least 2, especially if you won’t have a lot of time to train it.

So I’m home alone and this spider just scuttled across the floor and I jumped onto the couch and tried to push my dog towards it.

“Bosco, go kick its ass until it doesn’t have a leg to stand on! Not even one!”

And he just