Stuff 'n things

[wordinista]

Dear Everyone On My F-List:

I have been a very bad Bunneh.  I've been reading LJ (though not as obsessively these days), but I've hardly been replying to anyone.  I just want to let y'all know that it's mostly related to being sick, but also trying to keep an eye on Darwin AND keep on top of my normal daily responsibilities.  (This week I'm going to try and teach him that he does not have to have his nose directly up my butt 24/7, and the world will NOT end if I leave the room without him.)

I just realized that I haven't been commenting much, if at all, and it's been totally unintentional.  I've also been doing precisely jack for writing. 

I'm ALSO seriously reconsidering crate training Darwin overnight.  I need to get some sleep, and more than two hours at a time.  (Gotta say, I have newfound respect for new parents.)  He's not sleeping through the night, and he SHOULD be -- but I'm letting him out every 2 or 3 hours.  (He's slowly getting better -- one night he slept five hours straight.)  The first night we tried keeping him in his crate, he started howling and wouldn't stop.  I just hope I haven't created a bad habit in him.  *sigh*  I'm just so tired.  It's already one in the afternoon, and I don't know where the day has gone -- not because I've been super busy and productive, but because after takinghim out, feeding him, and playing with him (which ran from 6:30-8:00), we both collapsed for a nap that lasted THREE HOURS.  I hate napping.  Despise it.  It sucks up my day.

Any dog-owners on my f-list who can give some housebreaking advice here?  (Having him sleep on the bed and then rushing him outside whenever he woke up was Tora-kun's tactic, and it seems to be working not well at all -- aside from the fact that there've been no potty accidents in bed, knock wood.  Everyone I know has been recommending keeping the dog in its crate overnight until its fully housebroken, and I got such static from Tora-kun on that, it almost wasn't worth doing.  And then there was the endless howling, which sealed the deal.)

I just want a full night's sleep -- six to eight hours, consecutively.

Comments

[moonphased.livejournal.com]

Whew! Best of luck with the pup there!!

I definitely agree with the "you just gotta put up with the howling/whining for a while" until he's finally able to sleep through the night. Our pup Aki was kept in a small pen in the kitchen area while she was being housebroken. And she was DEFINITELY a howler/screamer.

She still has a set of lungs... when we went back to visit, 6am on the dot, she'd wake everyone up. "WALK TIME!" XD Of course, that's what her schedule is like now (mom gets up that early to take her for a walk), so damn US for intruding on her schedule...!!

Anyhow, she's two years old now, and things worked out, but yes, I definitely have to agree that the only thing you really can do is get earplugs and just put up with he nighttime crying until he settles down for the night.