They’re four months old now, and they’re pretty great guys.
They usually go to sleep at about 10 or 11 pm, and wake up at 6 or 6:30. The past few days, though, they’ve been waking up between 4 and 4:30 am, which makes me crazy because I want to sleep, but they want to pee! We’ve figured out, though, that it’s because the next-door neighbours are getting up for work or whatever and banging around outside. *I* don’t hear them when I’m sleeping, but the dogs do, and they get up. I’m thinking it’s time to sound-proof their crate, or to move it to a different location (I can’t really think of anywhere else to put it though).
They are 100% fully housetrained now – or, rather, they have us fully trained. They don’t actually go to the back door or anything, but Doozer will go into the kitchen and bark (usually at the stove) when he needs to go. Sprocket goes and sits beneath the living room window, staring at us. If he’s desperate, he’ll let go a little “woof!” but that’s about it. We did discover, a couple of weeks ago, that Doozer was being sneaky. I had a dollar store rug beside the back door, to put our boots on in the winter. It’s one of those black absorbent kinds, meant for soaking up the snow or whatever. We had noticed that Doozer wasn’t asking to go out as often as Sprocket was, and we couldn’t figure out why… until one day Rob walked into the kitchen and saw him having a little pee on the rug. Luckily there were no shoes or boots on it at the time, but Rob lifted the rug and it was very… heavy. Guess who had decided that the boot rug was now his own personal pee pad? Yeah. Now there are no rugs within his reach and he hasn’t peed inside the house in weeks (that we’ve found. If it turns out he’s been peeing in my winter boots then I’ll be upset).
I have taken to calling them “Fatso” as a little joke. Now don’t get on me for hurting their feelings. They don’t know what it means (and hey, it’s better than some people I know, who call their dog ‘Asshole’ as his full-time name). They’re not fat, either so it’s uh… it’s like calling a bald guy Curly or a huge guy Tiny, right? Anyway. I’m pretty sure they’re pretty much as big as they’re gonna get – Sprocket is 10 lbs, and Doozer is about 9. They look kind of big, because of all their fur, but when we give them a bath, they’re teeeeeeny.
Speaking of their fur – I’m thinking it’s time to take them to a groomer soon. I love the way they look right now, and don’t want them to get a haircut, per se – I just want their eyes, feet, and ears done. The only thing is that I’m having a hard time finding a groomer around here. And I’m not sure how they’ll react to it, anyway. Because Sprocket will let me brush him forever (unless there’s something he’d rather do more, then he’s like “Okay that’s it I’m leaving” and walks away). Doozer seems to be afraid of the brush and bites at it. I’ve done everything they say to do to get him used to it, including giving treats and so much praise it’s unbelievable, but he still just plain hates it. He never bites *people* – he doesn’t even make contact with the brush – but I don’t want a groomer thinking he’s some kind of vicious dog. It’s weird because he’ll let me do anything else – comb his face, cut his nails- but he sees that brush coming and he’s like “OH NOOOOOOOOOOO!”. And even then – about once a week he just sits there and lets me brush him, without any of the drama.
Sprocket doesn’t snore anymore (it was so cute!), but he still sleeps on his back (still cute!). They’ve been uh… how shall I say… “experimenting” these past few weeks. Okay, not experimenting. Humping. Not my leg, not Rob’s leg… but each other. I know it’s just an establishing dominance thing but still, I don’t like it and I make them stop. What is funny, though is that they don’t like… I don’t know how to say it. They don’t even get into any kind of proper humping position – one will just walk up to the other one, jump on his face, or his side, or his foot, and start humping away. And the other one is like “Huh? What are you doing?” and the humper is like “I DON’T KNOW!” and it’s kind of hilarious. Still, though, we’ll be getting them fixed when they hit six months (I’ve read online where some people recommend getting it done at three months but our vet won’t do it before six) and our neighbour will be sad because she still wants to breed her shih-tzu with them.
They are napping on my feet right now, which is nice because it’s been freezing here lately and they are so warm, but sadly I shall have to push them off because I have a crapload of papers I need to correct (I’ve been laying around sick and coughing and putting it off for three days now). They are so cute and so good, though! Even though they hump and like to bite paper!
