Phoebe Notes

Here's what I wrote on 4/4/06 in my Phoebe Diary:

Tuesday April 4, 2006

I’ve had Phoebe for three whole days now. It’s 8:19am. I thought she was doing well with the housebreaking, but this morning she was a complete wreck. She had to be corrected three or four times on peeing and she peed and pooped on the couch. So, I have placed her in her crate and will be following the 7 days schedule from now on. Hopefully, that will work. One of the problems with the 7 days schedule is that Phoebe doesn’t pee and poop 30 minutes after eating and drinking and she doesn’t eat all at once. She likes to graze. I have a feeling she will be in her crate a lot. I wish I didn’t have a job and I could be with her for a few weeks to housebreak her. My parents could do it, but they don’t want to.

Phoebe also has a problem with chewing. She chews on my hands. It hurts too. I try to substitute but she likes the hands. She is a cute puppy. She tries to play with Steffi and Fritz and sometimes they actually play with her. But they also growl and snap at her. Phoebe will learn what she can get away with when it comes to Steffi and Fritz. Sunday night, Phoebe slept almost all through the night. She only cried once. But last night she cried a lot all through the night. I think this is just a setback day since not only is the housebreaking regressing but so is the nighttime crate behavior. But she is still going to follow the 7 days schedule. I hope I can get it to work. I have to cover the crate like she’s a bird to keep her from crying a lot. So, I can’t see if she’s doing her business in the crate. She isn’t supposed to be. Overnight she will pee in her crate. The crate is bigger than it should be and I don’t have a divider for it. At least the crate is big enough that she can sleep on one side and pee on the other so she’s not really laying in her pee. As she gets older she should stop peeing in there. Especially since I feed her in one corner of the crate.

Tomorrow night, Phoebe has to get her last round of vaccinations and her rabies shot and get tested for worms. She’s had two doses of worm medicine but the vet wants to check her anyway.