For those who have been following the saga of our newest hound, Lizzie, there has been a significant amount of progress as she adapts, and comes into her own. She is a pint sized whirling dervish, especially when she wakes up in the morning. Indeed, in the morning (aka – when it’s dark) she readily goes out into the yard, either when I open the back door, or, through the doogie door we have.
However, during the day, she just doesn’t like to go out. At all. This has lead to several mistakes of the potty training sort, and is frustrating, because in the AM, as well as late at night, she is really good about going outdoors for her business, but during the day, it is predictable that she will eliminate indoors. Often (or mostly) on pee-pads, but still indoors.
Last night, celebrating a little victory, we had a favorite, rib-eye steaks, grilled to perfection. And while I was able to entice her to the steps on the patio, she quickly ate her morsel, and turned back to the house. No amount of cajoling, bribing, or urging would get her back outside.
I am going to be honest, I really don’t know how to fix this. I suspect that it will take time. I also suspect that this is part of the challenge of getting her leash trained and walking.
Baby steps, I will continue to chip away at this issue.
Other news
I bought an infant / child toothbrush, and have started brushing her teeth. I do want to get her into the habit. I use enzymtic toothpaste, the same that I have used for years on my greyhounds.
Last week, while she was still crate hiding, I did trim the worst of her nails (she has a split nail on her right front paw that will likely require some TLC) this morning in a moment of calm (relatively speaking) I got out the nail trimmers, and got all her nails. She was quite good about it. Now there is much less click-clack on the floors. The other cool thing is that her nails are quite transparent, and it is super easy to see the quick. That was always a challenge with the greyhounds, they had dark opaque nails that made it difficult to not nick the quick.
She is also warming up to my wife, and hopefully will soon not just run and hide. She even got on the couch with us last night while we were watching TV.