Button
As mentioned, we recently got a new puppy named Button. Now having had a few days to get to know our newest family member, it’s neat to see her personality shining through.
Addie was the first time I ever raised a puppy, and so everything was new. I had no way of knowing what was “puppy behavior” and what was “Addie behavior” – but now with a new puppy, and armed with fresh puppy-rearing experience, the differences are more easily seen.
Whereas Addie was a friendly but shy puppy, Button is all about adventure. She gets into, under and on top of everything. We have a small set of stairs in our apartment (just three steps), and despite moving in here when Addie was 6 months old, she had trouble figuring them out for about the first week we lived here. Button, at 2.5 months, had them nailed her first day.
She’s now applying this knowledge to get on the ledge where we keep our turtle tank, to get at things on the coffee table and she’s half way to scaling the sofa and our bed.
Button on a Ball
She’s also not quiet. Well, for a puppy at least. She’s not found her bark yet, but that doesn’t stop her from trying. She lets out little whines and yelps whenever she’s lonely, has to pee, has to poop or just bored. This is in sharp contrast to the once a month bark that Addie would let out (startling herself as much as us).
The third difference is a bit of a godsend. Button came pre-installed with Paper Training v1.0. I am guessing the vet we bought her from had something to do with that, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
When we got Addie we lived in a 3rd floor apartment, and there’s just no practical way to house-train a dog by running down 3 flights of stairs. We tried our best to get her to go on paper, but she just never seemed to pick it up – causing us endless cleanups and wet socks. However, after moving into our current place, that has a backyard, she house broke herself in no time.
Because Button hasn’t had all her shots yet, we’re not able to let her wander around the backyard. I was initially nervous that she’d also ignore the carefully laid paper and just go wherever, but her first night here she illustrated she understood that the paper was the proper place to go. She still has little accidents, as puppies do, but she gets it right about 70% of the time – and for a dog that pisses and poops her body weight a day, that’s a decent percentage.
