We had an incident last night when we left the house and left Finley in her crate. Apparently it was for a bit too long because the poor thing had an accident in her crate which proved to be a giant mess and took a while to clean up crate and dog alike (bedding was tossed).
I don’t actually think it was time related, but more separation related. While she sleeps great in her crate at night, we rarely use it during the day since we are often home. I believe it’s time for us to backtrack and do some more positive reinforcement training with ye old crate, slowly starting from a few minutes and building. I don’t remember a puppy being this much work; it’s been a humbling experience!
Let’s backtrack and talk about the weekend! It was wonderfully lowkey. Friday night was exactly what I needed. We made bread machine pizza dough, white Christmas margaritas (which are dangerously good), watched Elf, and made ice cream sundaes.
David worked Saturday and Hailey had a sewing workshop so Kaitlyn and I ran some errands. We bought Finley a new harness, took her on a walk, and picked out dinner. Kaitlyn requested “the yummy broth” from last week, so we picked up the ingredients to make Chicken Noodle Soup.
She made it 80% on her own. The desire to cook is strong in this one right now. Though at that brag, I should also mention that she baked her own cookies, too, which resulted in quite the tumultuous kitchen mess (which she half heartedly tried to clean up) and cute, yet completely inedible cookies.
Saturday night we watched Miracle on 34th Street, a favorite of mine. Realizing we are less than two weeks until Christmas, we decided we will watch a Christmas movie every night to be able to fit as many in as possible. Puppy life feels chaotic right now anyway, so late bed times ain’t no thing. Bring on the crazy!
Sunday brought basketball practice, work outs, and smoothies. I love having Daily Harvest frozen mylks stocked since I rarely buy almond milk. There are no thickening gums or fillers, just almond, vanilla bean, and salt. It’s great for smoothies! Remember you can use AHEALTHYSLICE for $25 off your first order, and $10 any subsequent order.
Late afternoon we left the house for one of our favorite family traditions; team Christmas shopping! This year Kaitlyn and David were a team, and Hailey and I were a team. Instead of Target or Walmart like year’s past, this time we went to Birkdale Village, an outdoor mall with multiple great stores to choose from.
Each team had $100 to spend how they saw fit to buy gifts for the other team. We had one hour. It was such a blast!! Birkdale is so festive right now, and the time limit had Hailey and I laughing hard as we darted from store to store. We saw David and Kaitlyn in Barnes and Noble and went into super stealth mode to avoid having them see us. It was such a sweet memory!
We bought some items from the Cookies for Kids Cancer fundraiser then grabbed dinner at Bonefish Grill. Having a tablecloth to draw on thrilled the kids, and drawing contests began immediately. We discovered that David is some kind of Picasso and he’s just been hiding it from us.
We arrived home to the aforementioned Finley situation, but dived right into cleaning her up. Then we took her on a night walk through the hood to see the luminaries. Everything got pushed back later than we anticipated, but a promise is a promise, so we all came home for a movie. We watched Deck the Halls for the first time, which is completely cheesy but provided multiple laughs for everyone.
Days Until Christmas: 12
Christmas Movies Watched: Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Home Alone 3, The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3, Just Friends (just me), The Polar Express, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, Deck the Halls
Randi says
We have a 7 month old Golden Retriever puppy currently, no expert here, but I found it so hard to leave the dog in her crate while I was home, but has been so helpful! She still doesn’t opt for her crate like I thought crate trained dogs did, she’d much rather be by my side. But I make a point to give her all her food in her crate and lots of treats while I’m home. Occasionally leaving her in her crate for 30-60 minutes even if I’m home and busy (chores, showering, working out, etc.)
Kaitlyn cooking adventures are adorable and I can completely relate. It’s takes ALL my patience to cook with my 6yo but I need to do it more often!
Brittany Dixon says
Such a good point to use the crate even though we are home; I think she needs that level of comfort and boundaries. What room do you keep your crate in?
Kelli says
Sounds like a great weekend except for the crate mess!
sherry says
What a wonderful weekend–minus the Finley crate situation 🙂
Making so many fun memories!
Christina says
If you haven’t already seen it – watch Noelle with your girls! I think it’s on Netflix. It’s ADORABLE!
Brittany Dixon says
Kaitlyn said she watched it and loved it! But now I want to see it too 🙂
JD says
Hi, Brittany! My family’s in the same camp as you, as we got a new puppy just a couple of days before you welcomed Finley home. Our puppy is about a week older than yours and not a vizsla (Australian Labradoodle here), but we’re experiencing a lot of the same things you are as she is also a very, very social dog who loves to be always at my side and in the mix.
For us, what helped most was to put her crate in a family area. Originally we had her crate in our master bedroom, but after two nights in the first week with exactly zero sleep for me and the puppy whining/howling as soon as I’d get up in the morning I decided I needed to change things up for my sanity. We were fortunate to have two crates at home, so from the first day she was here we had a crate set up in a family-central area of our house as well as the one in our bedroom. She’s spent every meal time we’ve had crated in the one visible from our dining area. At first, she’d spend the entire time we were eating going nuts inside her crate, very clearly not pleased with the setup and not being able to get to us when she wanted to be right at my feet. Within the first week or so, though, she grew to realize that it was part of the family routine and her complaints subsided. We always leave the crate door open outside of meal times, and now she frequently crates herself if she’s tired or wants a break from the kids. She also pays attention to meal prep and will actually crate herself before we sit down to eat much of the time, without anyone needing to tell her to go to her crate. The first week was torture, but the difference in her behavior and expectations from then to now are night and day. Now, she sleeps overnight in the crate in the family zone, too, which works better for me so that she doesn’t expect me to open her crate as soon as my feet hit the ground in the mornings. All that to say, I wonder if either moving Finley’s crate to a location where she can see y’all eating while she’s contained, or possibly getting a second crate (if you can swing it) if you still want her to sleep overnight in the same location she’s used to while also giving her practice in a crate while you’re home and visible to her, might help her to realize that being crated doesn’t mean you’re gone forever and it doesn’t haver to be the worst thing in the world. If you think about it in these terms, it’s three 30-ish minute periods to practice being in her crate every day. It’s been a great thing for my family and our puppy seems to enjoy the setup now, too.
Just like you’ve said in so many of your other Finley-related posts, raising a puppy is so different for each dog and family. It’s true, and it’s clear that you guys are determined to find a good way of going about things that fits for everyone involved. Here’s to hoping that a little bit more trial and error is all that’s needed in order to help Finley realize that the crate can be one of her happy places, too!
Brittany Dixon says
This is so helpful; thank you SO much. I’ve thought about moving her crate into the family room for the day and back to the bedroom at night, but it sounded unsustainable. I like your idea of having two crates, or just moving her main one into the living area. She sleeps well at night in her crate at the moment so I’m scared to mess with that, but do think it’s important for her to go in and out of it comfortably during the day, which would definitely be easier with the crate in the main living area. Is your pup allowed on the couch? We gave her a blanket zone on the corner of the couch and I’m wondering if we did it too early because why would she ever choose the crate to nap when the couch is an option? Haha, we might have gotten ourselves into a hole with that one. Thank you for your input!
JD says
Good question! No, we don’t allow our puppy (Poppy) on the couch or any other furniture. While there are certain reasons why I like the idea, I grew up in a home where dogs weren’t allowed on the furniture and now as an adult appreciate the ability to separate the dog from the kids if one or the other (or both!) are not in a good frame of mind to cooperate.
You’re not too late to redirect Finley from climbing up on the couch each time she’s looking for a comfortable spot to hang out! The good thing is that puppies learn pretty easily and quickly, even if you’re having to alter something she’s already learned. It sounds silly, but when I was growing up we would flip up the seat cushions of the couch to angle them in a way that would prevent the dogs from jumping up in order to keep them from getting up on the couch when we weren’t home and they weren’t crated. It takes a few seconds to do it before you head out and then to put them back in place when you return, but in our experience it was effective. An idea like that could be adapted to use in your situation even while you are home, obviously understanding that all the people in the house would be allowed on the couch whenever they want. You can teach Finley to be invited up onto her spot on the couch by putting that area under human control. I can see how teaching her to sit in front of her spot (or the person she’s asking) would be helpful, and teaching her “off” or some other command like it could be another good tool. For our puppy, “off” is a general command that means she’s on something she’s not supposed to be (standing/sitting on the window sill, jumping up at a person for attention, front paws up on the furniture looking for attention, etc.).
The bonus of not letting our puppy on the couch is that she *loves* when we sit on the floor and she will come right away to lay at my side. I do tell her “down” if I need her to give me a little space for any reason and she’s surprisingly good at listening even though she does want to be right next to me, but in general she knows that if I’m sitting on the floor it’s an invitation to cuddle and/or spend time with her. She’s also grown very fond of my slippers and will even go cuddle up with those sometimes (with her face inside because that has to smell wonderful?… dogs are weird.) if they aren’t on my feet.
To your point about being scared to mess with a good thing by moving Finley’s crate for sleep overnight, I hear you and felt the same way! For us, even though Poppy was sleeping through the night without any overnight bathroom breaks when she was crated in our bedroom, she did whine twice the first night she was out in the family room. The first time was only about 15 minutes after I’d put her in the crate and I immediately started regretting my choice to change her sleeping location. Still, I got up and took her outside to go to the bathroom, then brought her right inside and back into the crate. She woke up an hour later and whined so I again got up to take her outside to pee and then come back to her crate. After that she was quiet the whole night and hasn’t had any issues ever since. I think she just needed a little reassurance that first night to know that I was still around even if I wasn’t in the same room. That was a little over two weeks ago, so I’d say we’re all adjusted to her relocation at this point. I guess the moral of the story is that there might be a bit of a temporary backslide in her overnight behaviors at first if you choose to switch things up, but most likely Finley will adapt quickly.
Brittany Dixon says
I so appreciate this; thanks! It’s hard to pick and choose the habits we want to establish, but know it’s important so we can start now with consistency and reinforcement.