Single Moms and Puppies!

I decided to get the puppy on the same schedule as my daughter. I fed them at the same time, I got them up at the same time, put them to bed at the same time, and so on. I would take the puppy to the bathroom with my daughter when she had to potty and I would get my daughter to take the puppy out with me. I taught my daughter how to feed the puppy, take her out, how to sit, stay, and even roll over. I realized after we got everything down pat that I was actually teaching my daughter responsibility.

My daughter's teacher called me the other day and told me that she was very impressed on my daughter's progress at school. I asked her what she meant, and she told me that in the past couple of weeks her attitude had done a 180. She stopped biting, was more polite, helped others, learned to share, and actually listened when told to do something. I realized that getting my daughter involved in training the puppy helped her learn to act better at school.

One more thing that I did to make my life easier was to get my child involved in training, feeding, and taking the dog outside. My daughter loves to help me now. It also brings the dog closer to the child as well. I started getting my daughter to teach the dog to sit, using treats of course, and then moved on to stay, shake, and the hard one rollover. It did take a while, but fortuntely we got a smart puppy that can understand toddler. :-D

I also had to make sure that my puppy, Daisy, didn't bite my daughter, Hailey, when she was eating. Everytime Daisy would eat, Hailey and I would sit there and rub her and put our hands in the food bowl. It actually worked. Oh, and we fed her from our hands as well. Hailey can take things right out of Daisy's mouth without being bitten. Daisy knows not to bite Hailey just from us holding her nose and saying no. We only hold her nose long enough to get no out, and then we gave her something that she was allowed to chew on.

Daisy really turned out to be the perfect dog. She plays with my daughter like she is glass and would break if pushed to hard. It is so funny to watch them. Daisy will sneak up behind Hailey and nudge her with her nose until Hailey gets mad and chases her. Daisy runs waging her tail the entire time. Hailey will eventually give up, and then the process starts over.

When I put my daughter to bed Daisy will whine until I tell her she can get in bed with her. She snuggles up to Hailey and after about 15 minutes they are like a pretzel sleeping. Everytime I go to get my camera to take a picture Daisy pops up like a top. I am so glad that I used all the training guides that I did, because I really don't think I would have had such a great dog otherwise.