Its been two and a half months since we got our Sup puppy. It has been quite an experience. The dog that we got is a very vocal dog. He likes to tell us how he is feeling every second of the day/ night. At first that amounted to a lot of barking and whining. Finally Joe got a bark collar, and then Sup didn't bark but rarely. Unfortunately, the bark collar only worked for the really loud barks. If the dog whined, which was still annoying, but not quite as loud, the collar would do nothing. Joe found a collar that worked well for that, it would emit a high pitched noise when he whined. That worked pretty well.
At first, we had Sup in the house or his kennel most of the time. He was still quite little and we worried about leaving him outside all of the time. The problem is that he wanted to be on the carpet sleeping or chewing on something we had all of the time. That doesn't work for us, so I would put him in his kennel. Then we would get hours of barking or whining. Since the dog was never my idea I didn't want to spend those hours in the day playing with him. Nate didn't mind playing with him for a while, but then eventually Sup would start biting on him, and he would be done with the dog. Finally, as Sup grew, we figured out that he could go outside. Now he spends many hours outside, but that makes both of us happy.
At first, Sup would wake up many times at night to go to the potty. It was Joe's idea to get the dog, so Joe said that he would get up to take the dog out. He held true to his word, (and I let him, I spent 8 years getting up with the kids, I didn't want to get up with the dog). Eventually, he got to where he could sleep through the night, and our biggest complaint was that he would wake up at 6. Once the time change happened, he has been sleeping in later, but he will still wake up in the 6 o' clock hour. He doesn't whine in the morning, he just moves around or "dances" in his cage which makes enough noise to wake one of us up and we let him outside.
Potty training has been its own set of troubles. At first he would go indiscriminately anywhere in the house. Before we got him he was paper trained, which means the people who bred him taught him to pee and poo on a diaper like paper somewhere in the house. Because of that, when he would have accidents he would do them on the carpet, since it was closer to the paper than the tile. We have had to get to where he is not allowed upstairs, in the front bedroom or in our bedroom so that he doesn't leave us a surprise there. In the last few weeks, however, he has done a lot better about his training. This next picture is of him "hiding"shortly after we got him when I was telling him not to do something. He used to love to sleep under the couch, but now he barely fits under there, he still tries to get part of his body under but only for a little bit.
The first month was pretty awful. I complained to Joe all the time because it was his idea and I wanted to make sure he knew it was exactly like I said it would be. After a month, he was ready to get rid of the dog. Unfortunately, that very same week, Adam's best friend moved away. Since Sup was mostly Adam's dog, we couldn't get rid of him right when Adam's best friend moved, that would be too mean.
Since then, Joe still really wants to get rid of the dog. All of the reasons that I told him a dog would suck are true, and he has admitted to me, that I was right and he was wrong. Problem is, the kids still like him. We took a vote at dinner the other night and Adam, Michael and Ellie all still wanted the dog. Joe, Nate and I wanted to get rid of him. (He still bites and pesters Nate so Nate is not so much a fan. Nate in turn does things like push him down the slide. Almost all of Nate's shirts have bite holes in them from Sup.)
Sup is getting better overall, he is learning what we like and what we don't, so for now we are still keeping him. The kids have been very helpful with the dog, taking him for walks, feeding him and cleaning up his poo, they just aren't here all of the time.
One good thing that I can think about the dog is that Ellie is no longer deathly afraid of dogs, in fact, she will pet or talk to other people's dogs now. That is a huge improvement. Oh, and I don't have to sweep the kitchen as often. When I do, there is very little food in the sweepings, but only grass and sand.
Now Sup's favorite spot to sleep when he is outside is on the top of the play structure. He's gone down the slide when he is pushed, but usually he jumps up and down the plastic rock wall.
I still say, if you don't like dogs, don't get one, but maybe the kids will have lasting memories of their dog they had when they are grown. One thing is for sure, we now definitively know we aren't dog people!
