Wrigley...

Well, the first night wasn't a bad night with the new puppy in the house.

But night two was.

I must have fallen asleep on the couch. I was out to the world. And Megan came in about 1 a.m. to wake me up and tell me the dog was freaking out. The dog woke up about 1 a.m. and was squealing.

Then we put her back in the kennel and she just kept whining and crying. It's funny, because you won't hear a sound from her all day. But she must have been pretty lonely.

But it got unbearable and so I put the foot down... and moved her kennel to the office, shut the door and let her cry herself to sleep. I'd like her at the foot of our bed eventually, but at this stage we need to stick to our guns and get her disciplined, house trained, etc. and then she can be on the bed. Right now she needs to learn how to go to sleep independently (without her mother) and get through the night. She's still learning that.

We tired her out something fierce today so here's hoping that tonight goes well for Wrigley.

Other than that, we've had some other adventures worth highlighting.

She's finally learned to go up and down our back stairs. She sometimes wants us to carry her down, but now that we know she can do it, we don't.

She's also very playful. She likes to chase Megan and I around in the yard -- and anyone for that matter. She chased Leslie's nephew, James -- a 16-year-old visiting the states from Britain -- around in their yard tonight. She likes to play this game where she comes running at you and tries to give you a high-five as she's running at you...if you hold your hand out.

The biggest problem we have to break her of is she likes to eat her poop. I know that's very common in the Shih Tzu breed... and she knows she's not supposed to do it, too. Megan and I were watching her go and laughing about how wet it was and how it was sticking to the fur on her butt and it wasn't a matter of a few seconds before she turned around and we knew what she was doing. Megan has been yelling, "BaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!" at her and that seems to work, but Wrigley ran off with a big hunk of her shit in her mouth as Megan chased her. And then it got all over her face. I couldn't help but laugh. I know that's what dogs do...but I don't like it and Megan thinks it's gross.

So that meant bath time. Which we found out she hates. She was very upset at us for washing her coat. We dried her and held her to warm her up as it cooled off significantly at this point and she did nothing but shake. I'm sure we hurt her feelings but ...don't eat your poop, because then you're just going to get a bath.

Anyway, we're going to have to pick up some meat tenderizer. Apparently, if you put this on her food, it will make her poop less desirable to eat and should fix the problem.

However, we did find she likes ice cream. Maybe that's why her poop tasted good??? We stopped at Dairy Queen and got her a little baby cone and once she got her first taste she couldn't stop licking the cone. It really was funny. I know my grandparents used to do that with my mom's dog Tawny and she loved getting that as a treat. So we thought we'd try it out and see how Wrigley reacted. I think we'll save soft-serve ice cream as special treats (and the only human food), from now on.

Now, if we can get her to get used to sleeping in her kennel for the time being... I think we'll all be happier. :) On the bright side, she loves her bed. She looks forward to crawling into that during the day and just sitting.