We Don't Need No Stinkin' Crates

This is Porter's mantra at night.

I tried not letting him nap too late. I ran him around outside, which is tough since he prefers to snuggle the soft grass. He was completely exhausted, yet he fought tooth and nail not to sleep in his crate in the bedroom. A little whining I can accept, but he was pissed or stressed or both and I just couldn't make him tough it out. I don't want him to hate the crate and I have not had a chance to acclimate him to it yet, so really, it's not fair to expect him to just go with the flow. I've been working hard on getting him used to his puppy area downstairs but I neglected to do the same with the bedroom and that particular crate. Bad trainer! I need longer days.

Instead of torturing my puppy (and myself and the neighbors) I gathered up my pillow and some linens and took to the couch. Porter settled pretty quickly in his play area. A few times he would sit up and whine and I only had to lift my head so she saw that I was right there and he would curl back up and sleep. He still woke up almost hourly and I took him out to pee each time, just in case. A few of those times he really had to go!

Then at 4:30am I heard him throwing up again! More bile and water. His body is either adjusting to his new diet or he needs more food in his stomach before bedtime. Indigo will sometimes vomit bile (but yellow, not clear like Porter's) when her stomach is empty, so tonight I will give him some treats right before bed and see if that helps or give him something to snack on after one of his ungodly hour potty breaks.

The great thing about him is that after those potty breaks he settled down back to sleep very quickly! Only once did he seem a little more awake but a bullystick satisfied him. I think he's still settling in since even now at 6:30am he's napping again. He had breakfast at 4:30, then we played for a minute or two and he ended up chewing a toy while cuddling in my lap but quickly fell asleep while getting belly rubs. So he's sleeping quite a bit, just in small doses; 10 minutes here and there. I'm sure in no time he'll be up a lot more and demanding more attention.

Despite what I do for a living, Porter did have two accidents in the house yesterday. The first was when I took him to the bathroom with me (he had gone out himself maybe 10 minutes prior) and while there decided he needed to go, too, and the rug was a great spot. The second was after we can downstairs from putting QM in the bath. He was up there for 10-15 minutes chewing on a bullystick. I  carried him downstairs and set him down and was about to take him out but he walked over to the dining room window (which pretty much touches the ground) stood in front of it and peed. I think he thought it was the sliding glass door but didn't have time to wait for me to open it. I was trying for zero mistakes, but that is out the window.

Tonight I will do the same sleeping set up. And this weekend we will start crate games (Susan Garrett's system). I have had time yet to do any training but I also wanted him system to get use to his new diet before I started giving him a lot of treats. I think the downstairs crate will be easier to get him used to. He had to go through it to get to the play area, which is also where he eats. A few times I have waited to open the crate door until he sits. Last night and this morning he let me put him in that crate while he napped and he was perfectly comfortable. Maybe what I'll do is bring the upstairs crate down here and load it with soft blankets and see if he climbs in tonight to sleep. Then once he likes it I can bring it back upstairs and hopefully train him to sleep up there.