Home Alone 1

As I mentioned, we live in a (albeit decent-sized) small one bedroom apartment not terribly far from the heart of Cincinnati.
Part of the reason for this blog is to create my own sane haven from the trials and tribulations of this setup. Reasonably it's not too small at all, and you'd think that adding two pups who don't even weigh twenty pounds apiece would make a difference, but dog-owners know better.

Since acquiring the two pups, my possessions have probably doubled (including two large bigger-than-Wrigley sticks and a rock that he decided he wanted on his outings…) but the space to store it all in has remained the same.
Where I once had an empty floor, I have two dog beds and a small kennel. I was once able to shut my hall closet and pantry's doors, but hooks now hang storing puppy backpacks (for adventures) and recyclable grocery bags. I once had a nifty drawer all of my cords and cables were in, and now it holds destroyed dog toy rags, and toys neither one is playing with.

I have an entire selection of artwork under my futon and already, at least two pieces I've come to find shredded by Wrigley.

On this note, I will say that Wrigley has never been penned a day in his life, except while it's nap time. He has always slept in the human bed, or on the futon; and when he's left alone, he's always had free roam. A lot of people are probably going to criticize me for that, but I don't necessarily believe that penning or crating is the way to go. I have an older dog as well who lives with my mother, who has been confined to the kitchen during home-alone time every day of her life, and still has trouble understanding the concept of a "training" pad. Wrigley has pretty much had it down from the start. So…no problem. He's an angel.
Berry, as far as potty-training goes, isn't too different. She almost always pees on the pad, but we're still working on pooing on it.
They get along alright; she's very assertive for her size, but Wrigley is an enabler; he rolls right over for her. The only problem is they get loud when they play. I have no problem with that, but my neighbors do. Hence, my concern in leaving them alone.

As you can imagine, my first thought was to separate them when I went out. I wasn't planning on leaving for long, just going out to lunch with my mom on Mother's Day, right down the street. I walked everyone before I left, and I thought that giving Wrigley the living room and putting Berry in the bathroom (that's where she slept the night she came home) would be alright.
I was, regrettably, mistaken. I came home to a typical living room scene when leaving Wrigley in it, but the disaster that awaited me in the bathroom was unforeseen. I opened the door to a poop-covered washroom. Covered. Poop paw prints all over the floor, somehow on the door, on the training pad I'd left her. Luckily, she remained clean. I immediately mopped and wiped down the door so any further smell was avoided (and now my bathroom floor was an unrealistic clean.
But what was I going to do next time?

In an effort to figure this out, they have both been getting used to crate time; or at least, Berry has. Wrigley frequently stays in his crate when we're at my mother's but out running errands or whatever. They've been doing great with it. But I still can't bear confining them for long- Berry was in there for two hours earlier but only because we're sort of using it as a nap haven. She knows if she goes in there she gets a MilkBone and a totally interruption-free nap (her favorite). When she wakes up, she whimpers and we let her out.
So I still feel bad using it for extended hours.

But yesterday, the time came. Paychecks needed to be picked up and deposited, we were nearly out of puppy pads and were out of bagels- heaven forbid. And almost out of tea! The time came to try our hand.
I'm fairly certain our biggest issue was separating them. I think Berry just had a major freak out being alone for the first time, completely. No mama, no brother. Just her bed, blanket, a bone and a pad. I still feel bad about that.
So when this errand run came up yesterday, I took a wild shot in the dark, and we left them out. Together. Free. And unsupervised. I had mixed feelings to say the least; I left feeling confident, and towards the end of our outing, became fearful of returning to blood stains and puppy hides everywhere. In addition, I was certain there would at least be a nasty note from the neighbors or an eviction notice on my door.
It turns out that my gut was correct. There were no nasty notes, and when the door opened, two perfect little puppies ran out to greet our return.

Sometimes things work out alright, even in a small apartment with two puppies.