Saturday we got a dog finally completing my patient daughter's Christmas list. It's a four month old mini-schnauzer named Layla and she's turning out to be a handful.
Layla enjoys long walks on the beach and vomiting in the car...
We're learning a lot, like we don't have a CLUE on how to potty train a dog. This morning at 4:30am I nudge my wife, I'm about to do one of two things. Creep to the car with hopes of not waking the creature in the crate or waking said creature for her morning potty break.
My wife opts for 'B' taking Layla out into the 35 degree temperature with hopes that things will go better than yesterday's fiasco where Layla snuck off to poop in my son's room. So I suit up making sure the first thing we do is head outside for pee in an attempt to avoid yesterday's morning disaster where Layla peed all over the carpet about a foot from the preferred tile forcing me to pick her up mid stream and plop her on the tile.
So I have on my sweats and a coat when I enter the kitchen and I see two pointy ears pointed directly at me along with a quizzical, hopeful face. I greet her and the stubbed, tail wagging and DARNED GLAD TO SEE YA! body motions begin. I open the door to her cage and out she bounds. I then turn immediately to the kitchen door and we both trudge outside. Well I do anyway, Layla opts to remain behind so I pick her up and set her on the grass telling her to go pee. She sniffs about and finally pees after a minute or two and then goes and sits on the dry patio looking at me.
We head in and she's whining a bit at the second line of defense the child gate and I figure she's sick of the whole 'cage thing' and wants to check out the house while I make my coffee. She parades off with this Clydesdale's trot she has and I start making my morning joe.
It's too quiet so I go check on her and find her in the corner of the family room happily pooping under a chair the little darling!
I say, "Layla, NO!" but the damage has been done. I scoop her under my hand and take her strait outside tossing her in the grass and telling her to poop. She runs off around the side of the house for privacy (I hope!) and comes back a minute later.
We clomp back in. She's currently not a fan of the kitchen worrying she's gonna end back up in that cage so I keep checking on her (she's proven quite traitorous) while prepping the coffee. Then I sit in the big comfy chair, pick her up and sit her on my lap and while I drink my coffee she curls up into a ball and falls asleep. I doze off too.
Then my wife comes out of our bedroom eliciting a growl and a bark before being recognized and the stubbed, tail wagging and DARNED GLAD TO SEE YA! body motions resume.
Reeking of dog I head to the gym late (for me) and do thirty minutes on the elliptical and some stretching. I was thinking of the fourteen miles I did on the bike yesterday. I am so sincerely sick of headwinds, I did 27 miles in a pretty good one the previous week. As I was heading north plodding through some GALE I realized I wasn't enjoying this at all, and even though one is suppose to suffer on the bike (that's the point of the infernal device - this ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around) I'm too much of a candy butt to embrace a long sustained headwind. I cut the workout short at 14 miles instead of the planned 20. Later that afternoon a buddy dropped by wanting to see if I wanted to go out with him. He might actually train for the century with me, if I can figure out how to train for one.
So, new dog, life in shambles until routine is reimposed, how are YOU?!
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