Latest addition to our family

A few months ago our dog, Gidget, got away and we never got her back. We have been dog-less since. Gidget was a cute dog, but high strung (she had Chihuahua and Jack Russell in her so that should explain a lot!)

The kids have wanted to get another for dog but we have been hesitant. Then the other day my friend contacted me about her dog. They have had this dog for 4 years and have loved him so much, but now as her kids get older and aren't home as much and everyone is running here, there and everywhere she felt like poor little Miles wasn't get as much attention as he deserved. She asked if we would want to take him into our home. I talked it over with Mr. Man (who happens to LOVE Pugs) and he agreed. We picked up little Miles yesterday afternoon and he adjusted fairly easily. My kids smothered him at first so we had to tell them to give him some time to explore and adjust. He has a calm personality and adores the kids. Lady Bug has a tendency to scare dogs to where they nip at her, but Miles has been so patient with her! He is very loving to everyone and thrives on attention (which my kids are more than happy to give him!), but he really loves Mr. Man - following him everywhere!

So here is a picture of our new member - he is so ugly he is adorable!

Sleep Deprived

Let's see Sunday night was the last good night of sleep I had. Then got up early Monday for the "me time" so I was pretty tired come 9:30 Monday night... Now enter a very windy night and one scared 3 year old.

Said 3 year old comes into our room crying at 2:00 am because she is scared. Mr. Man lets her stay in our bed which would have been fine except she tossed and turned and flipped and flopped the rest of the night. I got up early (which was 5:30) again Tuesday morning for some more "me time". Tuesday night I had to work late and didn't get home until a little after 9:00 pm. I grabbed a bagel for dinner and went to bed. Now enter another windy night and a scared 3 year old.

Here comes Lady Bug again about 2:00 am scared of the wind. Mr. Man lets her get in bed with us again. She tossed and turned and flipped and flopped so at 3:45 am Mr. Man got up to go to her bed. In his tiredness he stumbled into a door knocked something over and the door went banging up against the wall.

Now, enter scared 7 1/2 year old. Mr. Man took Spirit to his room and laid with him in his twin bed (ya, I bet that was comfy!) and also enter a small dog that was aroused by the commotion - yep that was fun too! The banging of Mr. Man, Spirit waking up and the dog waking up also ended up waking up Lady Bug so she talked and talked to me about the wind and about Santa Clause for an hour. Finally at 5:00 she fell back to sleep. So did I. Mr. Man came to wake me up at 6:30 -- too late for me to have "me time" so I get up and get busy making lunches etc.

Last night we got to bed about 9:30 and at 2:00 am here comes Lefty. Poor kid had peed his bed, changed his clothes (into his school clothes!) and tried to sleep on the couch. He got cold and scared so came to our room. Then at 4:00 am dog wakes up and wants to play -- umm NO!

Need less to say I am exhausted today! Hopefully I can get to bed at a decent hour tonight and sleep all.night.long.

Wish me luck!

Gidget

Gidget, the new dog, (click here and here for more about the dog) did so well the first two weeks in our house. She never pooped or peed on the floor and always told us when she needed to go out. At night, we would let her out just before bed, then she slept in the boys' room all night long. About 6:30 she would wake up and need to go out.

Then we had her spayed and things changed. She wasn't feeling good, or eating right for a few days. Then when she got back to herself she would eat so fast it was scary to watch!!

There are many things that could be a factor to the dog suddenly pooping/peeing in the house:

1. Although we told the kids not to feed her "people" food, I am sure they have dropped stuff and she was eating whatever they drop.

2. If it is cold she doesn't like to go out to go potty. (She is so short that her little "wee wee" touches the cold blade of grass LOL!) If there is snow on the ground...forget about it. She would rather die than go potty out there! But if I go out with her she will find a place to do it, she does it as quickly as possible and then runs back in the house!

3. The kids let her out to go but if she doesn't want to go potty they don't force her to. So she meanders back in the house and proceeds to pee on the floor (and sometimes poop too!) When I let her out, if she tries to come back in before she goes potty I say "No. Go potty." and she will look at me like "Fine. But I'm not happy about this."

4. She is sneaky little thing. She will wait until we aren't paying attention and disappear into a room not being occupied at the moment and potty.

Here are some things we have done to help with this problem:

• We take her out a lot. Like as much as every 20-30 minutes.
• We put her on a feeding schedule. She gets fed at the same time every day. (this took her a few days to adjust to, but now she knows when it is time to eat and that's that.)
• We pick up her food and water at 7:00 pm.
• We take her out just before bedtime (since she sleeps with the kids, this is usually about 8 or 8:30 pm).
• We take her out again first thing in the morning.

This is working so well! We are so pleased. We had also been encountering a problem with her needing to go out several times during the night. Since we implemented our changes she is once again sleeping through the night! Phew!