Patience
“Patience and fortitude conquer all things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
I knew what I was getting into when I got a second dog. I did. Really.
But some days…
Puppies are a lot of work. A lot. And…they’re a lot of work.
So far housebreaking Penny was the easiest part. I signed up for a puppy obedience class, but it doesn’t start until mid-July, so I’ve been trying to work with her on my own. But Samoyeds are super intelligent…which means they’re stubborn. And they fuck with you. You know they know how to sit or lay down on command but all the sudden they pretend you’re speaking Chinese to them and they walk the other way.
It’s maddening.
And some days it just tries my patience.
I haven’t figured out how to stop the puppy from trampling my plants and digging them out. I can’t keep her from totally trashing the grass. I haven’t been able to keep her from jumping up on me. And I haven’t successfully managed to stop her from trying to trip and kill me when we’re walking through the house. I have no idea how to make her stop trying to swim in her water dish. I wish she’d stop dumping it over.
I know it’ll come. I know that if I keep at it and am consistent she’ll be fine.
But right now?
Oy.
Totally bored with this whole training thing
TexasEmerald
I had Samoyeds when I was a kid. There was Teka, King, and Diablo.
Diablo was the naughtiest. He would take great joy in ninja-like escapes from the front door and run as fast as his floppy, furry paws would take him to the end of the block. He would then stop, sit down facing the house, and wait for my mother to get about 10 steps from him before taking off running at break neck speed to the opposite end of the block. This game would continue as long as he deemed necessary…there was no catching him.
When he wasn’t practicing for the Olympics, he would bask in the sun in the back yard…and then little birds would swoop down and peck fur out of his mane for their nests. That is, until he caught one and ate it.
Good times.
So, good luck with the training. Hopefully, you’ll be trained soon so Penny can continue her quest for world domination.
{{hugs}}
Mo
The bird thing is funny. They totally pick the fur right off the dogs. It drove our first Sammy, Callie, out of her mind. So she started to stalk the birds. She got so stealthy and fast that we’d find the remains of birds once a month. One afternoon, my husband and I were out front with her and a bird swooped too low for her comfort and she jumped up out of a dead sleep and grabbed the bird out of the air and, well, you know how that ended. We called her The Great White Huntress.
Kimberly
Our second Samoyed sounds a lot like Penny. He was the messy one and the one that thought he was playing by jumping up on you and digging and generally annoying the hell out of us. The two dogs were like the Odd Couple – one was neat and well behaved, the other was messy and had his own definition of polite behavior.
Have you ever used the pennies in a metal can to stop the bad behavior? We used that to train our dogs to stay out of the plants, digging, and jumping up on us. It worked pretty well too.
Mo
Gracie is a bit of a priss sometimes but Penny is like PigPen—there’s a cloud of dirt around her constantly. I forgot about the jar of pennies. We had to do that with Gracie for something. It’s probably time to resurrect that. Thanks for the tip!
Eve
I can’t even imagine taking on a pup. After reading this I’m exhausted too. We almost gave our cat back…after he thought our down comforter was a great litter box. Good luck Mama Mo!