Frustrations

As the title states, I'm a little frustrated. Not so much with Quiz, but with little habits that she has and issues she has presented.

The first is still the relieving issue. I gave her 45 minutes yesterday to relieve. Then went back inside, let her wait for about 10 minutes, and gave her another 10 minutes. Then I repeated the waiting for 10 and circling for 10 another 2 times. (Yes, that is in total, an hour and five minutes she had to relieve). I was getting worried about her so I decided to take her on the shortest walk ever (to the house next door and back) just to loosen everything up a little. Just past the bushes of my house she decides to pooh all the pooh she had refused to get rid of the five times I had taken her out to the relieving area. Yes, it's very frustrating. My new rule (which was actually instated yesterday) is that I'm not taking her anywhere unless she relieves and to give her an extraordinary amount of praise when she does (even if it's just pee). So far, we have not had one successful walk where she does not relieve and I'm giving her plenty of time to relieve out back. In fact, she has not pooped once in my back garden. At 13 months, this should not be the case. So, if she doesn't relieve she'll have to stay in the crate while I go out. I hate doing it, but it's better that she learns that she needs to relieve out back before we leave or wait until I find an appropriate place for her.

I know what you all might say. Freya was a really finicky reliever and at 13 months she sometimes didn't go when given the opportunity. And Rocco didn't like relieving anywhere but at home. All this is very true. But they knew that if they didn't go when I gave them the chance they needed to wait. Both Freya and Rocco would go for the entire walk and relieve upon returning home. I mean, Rocco held his pooh for the entirety of Fun Day because he didn't want to relieve in the hotel parking lot. Then only went when I gave him the command. And he was only 6 months old.

Secondly, she does not do "down". Point blank refuses to do it. Which means that I can't take her to class, restaurants, or the cinema until I teach her "down". This is also a little frustrating because when my supervisor told me I was getting a 13 month old puppy, I was expecting one that knew all of the basic commands so I could take it places. The only places I can take Quiz are grocery stores and malls and places like that where I won't need to lie down and be still...but I can't take her there because she won't poop when given the opportunity.

Lastly, she's a forager. In the past, when we've been walking, my hand has constantly had to  pull her away from bushes, the ground, poles, and everything. I've had to give her a few strong corrections because verbal commands with a slight tug don't work. She is intent on smelling or grabbing whatever is there. Of course that won't be an issue because she can't go anywhere unless she poops.

Honestly, it feels like I have a really well house behaved 5-8 month old puppy in a 13 month old puppy's body. She's an excellent worker and loves to go out. Her whole body starts to wiggle when she sees her puppy jacket come out. But, I can't take her anywhere until she learns to relieve out back. I really didn't think I was going to have to teach her how to relieve on command or the command "down." Those are things I expect a 13 month old puppy to know already. She's a wonderful dog and, like I said, has really nice house manners but it's hard to being able to take her anywhere. At 13 months old they really should be able to go everywhere and need the exercise of walking and running outside.

See, I set up a lot  of stuff in these last weeks of February so that all the things I needed to do would be sure to be done by my spring break. I knew that having a little puppy would mean needing to be more flexible with my time schedule so I told all of my friends that I would have to just take things as they came during and after spring break, but made plans up until spring break. The reason I agreed to take Quiz was because she was older and could fit into this busy life style that I have created at the moment so that I can be super flexible when my little one came. But, she doesn't. The main reason I said that I had to wait until spring break for my own puppy was that I needed time to prepare...I needed to get ready for some of the issues Quiz is presenting.  

What this all sums up to is that, if she doesn't get better about her reliving and about her "downs" I might tell Graham that I can't watch her for the entire time. A week is absolutely fine, but the entire three weeks of not being able to take her anywhere, right before her recall, would be really frustrating and she would lose a lot of the training she received with her first raisers. All of it makes me really sad because I really, really like Quiz. But in honesty, three weeks of not being able to take her anywhere and running myself ragged when I didn't think I would have to might be too much. I didn't plan for a baby puppy right now and I'm not ready for it. Spring break I'll be ready for it.

I know Quiz needs time to adjust, so this could just be her adjusting period. Which is why I've decided to let it go for a week. If after a week she hasn't pooped in the back garden I'll definitely need to talk to Graham about it. It all boils down to I am not ready for a baby puppy yet (I will be though) and that's what it feels like with Quiz sometimes.

With all that said, I'm going to review the commands in the puppy raising book and make sure that I have them all right. I'm not opposed to the idea that all this is my fault, but I'm doing all that I can at the moment. Hopefully, it'll all get better and this is just Quiz adjusting.