Fluff-Ball Update

It's been a little while since I updated ye olde blog but that's not to say that life is dull with him. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if life with Buddy could just click down a gear or two, I could live that. Oh, for the chance to try.

Let's see, what has the black and white Fluff Bucket been up to? Well, since he's discovered the FREEDOM (Braveheart stylee) of getting out for walks since the Event That Must Not Be Mentioned (which was getting his second inoculations, we still can't talk about it in front of him without him going in the huff) Buddy has decided that The Great Outdoors should remain great and he has decided against toileting outside. Seriously, we could take him out for an hour and he would be a poop and pee-free pup but as soon as you open the front door and walk back in the house, the little torag is either getting into to his pre-poop squat and having a fly slash under the dining room table. Frustrating? Yes. Maddening? Absolutely. I don't know how many kitchen rolls I've been through but it's safe to say that Plenty (previously Bounty;) ) will not be going out of business any time soon.


So the puppy does the odd crime against carpeting in the house. We could live with that, right? Of course we could. But one thing that I am not remotely amused with is Buddles' new nocturnal activities - crying like a big girls blouse. All night. Very loudly. On Friday night he turned into a howling hound and kept us awake. What did we do? Stay strong and ignore him? In an ideal world, we would have. But at half past two in the morning it is incredibly difficult to ignore the constant arf arf arf arf woofy woofy woofy arf arf arf woofy woofy woof at ear-splitting decibels. Especially when you're in a post two glasses of red wine haze. We made the classic mistake of going down to see what Dog McDog-face was barking about and guess what? He just to say hi. He just wanted to be petted. He just wanted to have a wee chew at our fingers. Basically, all he wanted was anything except from being left alone to go to sleep. Yes, this puppy is a clever cookie.

Night time howling and carpet defecation aside, what else have we been up to with Budweiser? Puppy training of course! Yes, we've started the puppy foundation course at the brilliant Wizard of Paws Canine Care Centre under the watchful eye of the super-lovely Gill Buchanan. Why oh why can't Gill just move in with us? She gets Buddles to do things when she asks him. How is that possible? When I do the 'sit' thing with him, he just looks at me as if to say 'aye right missus, very good. Make good with the dog treats lady'. However under Gill's encouraging coaching Loopy and I managed to get him to sit on demand - we even got him to lie down on demand. We have continued with the training at home, but now Bud is getting wise to us and as soon as he sits down and gets his treat, he lies down automatically waiting on his next treat. What'cha gonna do? The training is very positive and reward based - we don't punish or berate the pups and use motivation and rewards. If anyone trained me with a grab-bag of Minstrels the way we're training the pups with treats, I'd sit nicely and lie on demand. Damn straight. There's a lovely mix of breeds at the class. There's our Bud, a teacup chihuahua aptly named Tiger, a pug named OB and Border Terrier called Bree. Buddy looked at least twice the size of all the other pups but when you consider that he's 88% pure fluff, I suppose he's just about the right size.

I know that reading about me bleating on about cleaning up pee and suffering from dog-barking related sleep deprivation is perhaps now the most riveting reading. S'ok, I can take it, I'm a big gal. A big, puppy-bore blogging kinda gal. So here's what I thought I'd do - I thought I'd give you a little insight into life through Buddy's eyes....

Wow, they've all gone to up those stairs that I'm not allowed up. Hmmm. Must process that information. I did manage to sneak up there one day and man, it was good. Really good. you know what they've got up there? Slippers. And shoes. Loads of them. Do you know how long I could chew shoes for? A long time my friend, a very long time indeed. And that's before we even get into the bathroom and you know what's in the bathroom? Only the toilet bowl! How much fun is a toilet bowl? It's a lot of fun. They've even got a toilet brush up there - I'm not kidding! A toilet brush!!! Seriously, it's like Disneyland up there for puppies. But there's one problem - I can't get passed that infernal obstacle they put in my way. What do they call it? Oh yeah, the stair gate. The stair gate appears to Buddy-proof. How can I beat the Buddy gate and get up those stairs? Ooooooh I know, know!!!! Bark at it! Barking will work. yeah yeah, let's bark! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! (repeat to fade...)

You get the idea.

Reading back, I think this post sounds quite negative and believe me I don't mean to be. Because as much as I may moan about the pee-saturated kitchen roll, poop infested carpet and nocturnal howling, I really, really love my little Buddy Boy Bingo. I love coming downstairs first thing in the morning and seeing his little fuzzy face. I'll be even happier when I can come downstairs and see him in the morning without having to negotiate my way through yellow puddles and puppy logs but I'm sure that will day will come. Here's hoping it comes before Plenty report record profits and we're bankrupt after buying mountains of the stuff.

Till next time...stay safe people. Buddy loves ya.