Today, cheez-it was a little terror. He suddenly developed a taste for shoes. I walked him around the house with his leash on, I sort of held im next to me in the heal position to stop him from eating the leash. He is doing alright with the leash, but he absolutely refuses to use the bathroom while it is attached. Our first and last leash-walk began after he pee'd in the usual spot in my living room, and ended with me reeling him in like a Marlin, fishy movements and all. This is when I noticed a fatal flaw in my house-breaking plan.

He doesnt really give a warning when he pee's. When he poops its the obvious circle walk and start squatting. But peeing, oh no, no warning for you James. It so happens that to benefit his little-to-no warning on peeing he is also so short that I cant really tell if he is going or not. He doesnt raise his leg. So by the time I catch him he's already pee'd his max teaspoon amount and when I run him outside he doesnt have to go!! So what do I do?

Well at first I took him inside as soon as I figured out he was just goofing off outside, and I cleaned my carpet. I use a spray cleaner, some soaking, dry it up, put down some peroxide, let sit, dry it up, then finally febreeze the carpet. He still goes in the same area, just a different spot. Well, I decided that next time we go out we are staying out until he goes.

So he pee's without warning, I leash him and take him out, we spend a while outside and nothing happens. He just thinks it's funny to run to the end of the leash and perform his marlin-maneuver. So 1.5 hours later, no playing, no nothing, just watching him and waiting, and no pee. It occured to me that mabye he didnt have to go, since he just went (inside) and hasnt eat/drank since coming out. So we go inside after a quick leash battle, where he promptly runs to "that area" and eliminates!!!!!!!!!! I had this all planned out, what is going on here??

I'm going to do something geeky, I am making a database with a simple flash-application for ease of data-entry and cross-platform compatability. This is to track his peeing of course, as well as other dog-related actions. I want to know the average time he pees without eating/drinking/playing and the time after such actions it takes to pee. He is pretty predictable, thats what gets to me so much, that I am always 1 step behind him! If I can get him outside around the time he should pee, wait it out and repeat, we should have this potty-thing down in a week. (Besides occasional accidents, to leave a margin for error).

The final flaw in my plan is Dog-bones, yes it's a flaw, and I am to blame for this one. At first he was great with eliminating outside. We go out, he goes, we come in, it's dog-treat time. He already knows this. If we go out, nothing happens, and we come in, he still thinks its treat time. He stands by the kitchen near the treat-box and waits. No manner of calling will break his attention from the treat-box. Toys? Invisible to him. He did this for 30 minutes until I caved and gave him one. I can see this leading to "pretend-I-have-to-go-out-when-I-dont-and-come-in-and-get-a-treat-itis". Tomarrow were working to remedy this, as well as mabye trying a basic "sit" command.

Oh well, were making it an early night, there's a vet-appt. in the AM that I am sure he is going to love!