It's the Simple Things in Life

Today was grocery day.  This includes grocery shopping for both humans and four legged creatures.  During my trip to Petsmart I picked up a tug-toy for Daisy.  We have been talking about getting her one for a few weeks, seeing as how she has all but devoured her stuffed animals.  Also, we pretty much use the stuffed animals as tug toys as it is and we decided it would be nice to have something more sturdy to play with.  This was a great decision!  Ever since coming home and giving her the new toy it has not left her side, much less her mouth!

I am glad that she loves it and I hope that the "new" doesn't wear off for a long time!

Stretched to the Limit

Last night our friend Ben came and spent the night in our guest bed (a.k.a  futon) since he and Adam were riding in the Hotter n' Hell Hundred  bike race this morning.  We moved Daisy's kennel from the living room into the bathroom so that she wouldn't keep anyone up during the night.  Here is what I found when I walked in the bathroom to get ready for bed last night:

I think that she might be outgrowing her kennel? 

Daisy and I went on a 2.5 mile walk this morning and she did so well!  Having a dog is a great way to lead a more active lifestyle.  I would probably never have started walking everyday, but now that I have a reason to get my lazy butt out of the apartment everyday I am really enjoying it!  The sweet lady who lives below us told me the other day "you sure do walk your dog a lot." Yeah, but I don't mind.  It is saving my carpet from accidents and my mind from insanity...plus it is getting me back in shape.

One thing that I do have to say about Daisy is that she is a shade fiend.  She would run in front of a  moving vehicle in order to get to a 6 inch patch of shade on the opposite side of the street (this is not an exaggeration, she tried this several times today).  She may be a smart dog but I think she is lacking a little common sense.

Having a dog to love on you when you don't feel so great is a wonderful feeling.  Here is a pic of Daisy keeping a watchful eye on Daddy while he recovers from his bike ride:

Daddy's Home!

Remember as a little kid the anticipation of waiting for 5 o'clock to roll around.  This meant that dad was due to show up any minute.  I 'm not sure who looks forward to this more: the kids or mom, but that doesn't really matter; as soon as the garage door opened someone would shout "Daddy's Home" and then you would rush to the door and attack your father with stories about what you did that day.

Welp, it is almost 5 o'clock on Friday and guess what...daddy is on his way home!

Daisy keeping watch out the patio door for the first sign of Daddy:

My husband's job has required that he be out of town M-F for the past 4 weeks which means that I've pretty much been a single dog-mom and let me tell you...it gets tiring!  I have a growing appreciation for real single parents who have to be both mom and dad to their kids.  They don't have anyone to tag-team with, bounce ideas off of, or just give them a break at the end of a long day.  Kudos to all you single parents out there, you deserve a lot of respect!

But back to my main point...Daisy does much better discipline-wise when Adam is home, there is just something about a man's commanding presence that has much more of an effect at getting her to stop doing whatever destructive task she has set her mind to at the moment.  Don't get me wrong, I can get my point across too, but it is so much nicer when I don't have to do all the disciplining myself.

In other news, when we got Daisy we went to Goodwill and got some stuffed animals for her to play with.  They have served us well, but here are their remnants:

Both animals have been totally gutted, shredded and in some cases turned inside out.  But Daisy still loves to play with them, so until there is only a sliver of fabric left I'm not buying new ones.

Walking Alternative

I have found an alternative way to wear Daisy out.

And it comes with the added benefit of a clean home.  Here is how it works:

Step one: pull out vacuum - strikes fear in the heart of the puppy

Step two: plug vacuum in- this sends Daisy in a beeline for the bedroom closet (i.e. her 'safe zone')

Step three: make way down the hall with running vacuum

Step four: vacuum bedroom - this sends Daisy in a beeline for the couch (i.e. 'back-up safe zone') and looks something like this:

Finish by putting vacuum up and admiring your nice clean carpets as you console a traumatized puppy.

After she has been assured that the horrible blue machine is not going to make another surprise visit in the near future, Daisy then goes around an inspects the apartment to make sure that everything is still intact.  Once peace has been established Daisy sleeps like a baby!

I know what I'll be doing on rainy days from now on!

And I just have to post this pic because I think it is too cute :)

Sneak Attack

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Yep, that's right. Daisy is teething.

I noticed a few days ago that she was missing one of her bottom teeth but today as we were having some quality mommy/Daisy time I saw that she is now missing her two lower front teeth. 

I would take a picture to show you but I can't for the life of me figure out how to hold her down and get a picture at the same time.  And who really wants to look a picture of a dog's mouth anyway...even if they supposedly "have cleaner mouths than humans."

BTW, I don't know if dogs mouths are cleaner that humans but I sure hope so because I come in contact with a lot of dog slobber during the day.

One Small Step for Dog, One Giant Leap in Dog Training

Okay, the title may be a bit of an exaggeration, but today was a much better dog training day.  Last night ended with Daisy in trouble and getting sent to her kennel and me going to bed almost in tears.  It seems that after I posted about potty training Daisy needed to test her limits once again, and again, and again. After having just been outside...ugh!

But, every day is a new day with a fresh start. With a little more puppy time, two pretty long walks and regular bathroom breaks we have been accident free today and most other mischief has been kept to a minimum as well.  There is hope!

The next two bad behaviors at the top of my training list are: leash walking and barking.  

It would be safe to say that Daisy is a bit of a home-body.  She doesn't mind going outside, but if you take her out of her element (i.e. the park) she kind of freaks out at tries to run back to the car.  This morning on our walk I basically had to drag her because all she wanted to do was go back home.  Despite the frustration we kept plugging alone because I am sure that consistency pays off sometime, and I know that she is due for a good long nap after we get back home (thus allowing me time to get other things done).  Since Texas has been blessed with a cool front and Daisy was furiously digging at the carpet this afternoon I decided it was time for another walk.  However, this second walk was like walking a different dog!  She actually walked the entire time, no dragging required, save for a little re-direction back on the path. AMAZING!  I hope she keeps this up tomorrow!

As for barking I am still kind of at a loss for this one.  Daisy doesn't bark at people outside or other animals, she barks for attention...during meal times.  I can pretty much count as soon as I sit down to eat that she will be at my heels putting on her sweet face. After of a few moments of the sweet face not getting her the attention she wants she decided to voice her opinion.  Not happening.  At first I tried ignoring it, she didn't get the message.  I tried the "No Barking" command to no avail.  Then I resorted to the pacifier (rawhide bone).  This seemed to work, but how do I get her to realize that she should just go find her bone in the first place?  And where do dogs learn to beg?  It is not like we have ever fed her food from the table, so why does she think she is entitled to some?

Oh, well! Just a few more things to work on!

So Fresh and so Clean, Clean

Puppy potty training is an ongoing process. Most of the time Daisy does well, as long as we stay on schedule.  However, it never fails that as soon as someone asks me how potty training is going and I say "great! we are almost accident free!" that Daisy feels the need to prove me wrong.

This happened yesterday after having the above conversation with my mom.  No sooner had I hung up the phone than Daisy was popping a squat in the middle of the room!  However, I am always armed with Nature's Miracle pet stain and odor remover so have no fear!  I cleaned up the mess and moved on.  I even took an extra measure and used some Glade Carpet & Room odor eliminator carpet powder when I was vacuuming up last night (which I will review later on).  

But this morning as I was sitting on the floor near where the aforementioned accident happened I found myself thinking "I smell urine." Gross.  I take great pride in having a clean home so I really, really, really do not want my house to smell like dog or even worse: dog urine.  This led to me viciously smelling all the carpet (a sight to see I'm sure) and then getting out Nature's Miracle again and pouring, not spraying it all over.  Pouring is a much more effective method and I think that I have conquered the smell...for now.

Now back to Glade...My former roommate used some sort of carpet powder in our apartment and I thought it smelled wonderful.  So, I was super excited when I had two coupons (courtesy of Couponing101) and was able to get a great deal on it.  I got the fresh scent for pet odors because, duh, I have a pet.  At first it does have a fresh scent, which then turns to old cigarette scent.  Can't say I am a fan of it, but that being said I have a whole container left and I'll probably break down and use it again...maybe the second time will smell better.

And because every blog post is better with a picture:

A Blog about a Dog

Welcome to the Driving Miss Daisy blog!  I am Erica and my wonderful husband Adam and I recently adopted our first "child" a.k.a. a short haired collie mix named Daisy :)  

 

Cute, huh?  This pic was taken the day I picked her up (and right after she had gotten spayed so she was all drugged up).  This was also the first, and last time she got to ride in the front seat of the car. 

We have been pet-parents for 3 WEEKS now! (sometimes if feels like longer...)

Daisy is approximately 4 months old so we are in the "terrible two's/teenage years" of dog training, but we are working on it! 

I decided to start this blog not because I am a blogger (i.e. avid writer who is either trying to change the world via blog posts or keep up their writing skills in between publishing books and thought provoking articles for the AP), but because I think that pet-parenting is an adventure and Daisy does some crazy/funny stuff that I thought others might enjoy hearing about.

So, follow me as we learn, train and love on our dog!