Potty Training 101

Alvin is doing well but we are back to square one with potty training.  When he could barely walk I wasn't concerned if he went to the bathroom in his x-pen but he seemed to miss the point that potty was only in the x-pen and we are back to him going in the house.  Luckily, it has only been on the tile but now we are going to have to start over.  It's worse this time because I caught him right when he first came here and he learned kind of quickly not to go in the house.  Now since he has gone in the house he seems to view the living room as his personal toilet.  Fantastic! 

He is off the sedatives because I couldn't drug him for the full 12 weeks.  He is still walking far too much but I can only do so much to prevent it.  He does best when I put him in my bed but I can't stay in bed all the time, no matter how tempting.

A great side benefit to his surgery is that he is allowing me to touch him much more.  When he was sedated I spent a lot of time scratching his back and his head, which are the two areas he has been most fearful of being touched.  When he is in bed with me he allows me to scratch his back and head as much as I want.  We have been practicing a lot because I know a potential adopter will actually want a dog they can touch.  So, at night I sling my arm over him and lay my head on him and he takes it like a champ.  He is also starting to let me scratch him back and head in other parts of the house.  He gets much more shy in the other rooms because I am not lying down with him but we are definitely getting there. 

The house has been disrupted lately because my dog Timmie came down with severe pneumonia and had to be hospitalized.  He was gravely ill but after a surgical procedure to get the pus out of his lungs, IV antibiotics, and being in an oxygen chamber for two days, it looks like he will make it.  Before he was hospitalized I had him in my bedroom with a high steam vaporizer.  He started huffing and puffing and Alvin just stood on the floor staring at him for hours.  He had a concerned look on his face.  I am posting a picture of Timmie and Alvin a few days before Timmie got sick.  Alvin is the one getting crushed and Timmie is the one posing for the camera.