Torturing Jilly...

Jilly had her first bath today. She did really well (at least to me, I'm not sure what well is for a first bath). I washed her in the kitchen sink in our dish water tub, and Craig stood by to provide an extra set of hands for when I needed to do something (and to dump the tub she was standing in when it became too full). I shampooed and conditoned her, she whimpered and shook the whole time, but stood pretty well. After that we wrapped her in a towel and hand dried her a bit. Then Craig held her so that she stayed in one place while I blow dried her with the hair dryer on low. She accepted that ok, whimpered a bit and tried to move away, but it wasn't too bad. She dried very quickly and I brushed her at the same time. She was so cute and fluffy after we were done!

Right now she's going potty outside every two hours or so, then we have a big party and run around the yard and act all crazy. It's fun. She's getting really good about running alongside us. Each time we take her a little further along the side of the house, she gets a little nervous because the gap between the house and the fence is much narrower. I'm not sure when she'll be ready to go for "walks". We'll probably discuss it with the trainer at the puppy class we take her to. I'd imagine that it won't be until she's going potty a little more reliably. One of the training manuals we read suggested teaching your dog to go potty first thing, and then go for a walk, so that it doesn't think going potty means they don't get to go for a walk or have fun outside. So when we take her outside we stand in one spot until she goes potty, then we go into the yard and play. If she doesn't go potty we go back inside.

She spent about 30-45 minutes in a little crate today. Craig took her outside to go potty and she didn't (we wait at least 3 minutes for her to go), so she got a big drink of water and went into the crate with her Kong. Craig sat next to her and when she stopped whining about being in the crate he'd praise her and give her a piece of food. She would start whining again, so he would ignore her until she stopped, and then praise her. Within 20 minutes she was completely quiet, just watching him (he would praise her every few minutes for continuing to be quiet) and 10 minutes after she quieted down she fell asleep. When she woke up she went outside to go potty and then we gave her the bath so that she would be dry before it was time to go out again.

We've started recording when she drinks, eats, and goes poop or pee, so that we can predict better when she'll need to go, and look for patterns in her behavior. We play with toys on the living room floor until she stops running and lays down to chew, then she moves to the couch and chews on her toys and eventually falls asleep. When she wakes up she goes outside to go potty, and if she doesn't, then she'll go in her crate until she potties outside.

She did great during the day yesterday, and then we had some trouble at night. I'm not sure if she's less comfortable in the dark, or what. So we're making sure to be more vigilant and give her firmer boundaries (the crate) to encourage her to go outside so that we have the chance to praise her and let her know that's what she's supposed to do.