Puppy Progress Report, Week 1

Kind of hard to believe we have had Clara for a week now! And still she will only be 8 weeks old tomorrow. In the last couple of days she has made huge progress with potty training and sleeping. We've been accident-free for two days, and she is starting to let us know when she has to go out by pawing at the back door. She slept through the night last night, and I think she would be doing that more consistently if it weren't for Ulysses who usually sleeps with Ben for part of the night and then meows to go outside around 3am, which wakes Clara up. Last night Ulysses stayed in on Ben's bed all night, so Clara slept through the night. Even when she does wake up and want to go out at 3am, she does her "business" really fast and goes right back in her crate with no whining lately.

Our biggest issue seems to be teaching the kids to play with her appropriately. Ben tends to use himself as a toy, which encourages Clara to roughhouse with him, and Rebecca tries to maul her whenever she's sleeping and carry her around like a baby but when the dog is playful Rebecca gets overexcited/ the dog gets overexcited and then Rebecca squeals and runs away and the dog thinks she's playing and chases her. So those seem to be our main issues at the moment but we're trying to supervise the kids' play time with Clara and to teach Rebecca especially how to play with her properly.

Besides that, and the fact that I think I need to call a plumber because our sink is totally stopped up (Putting uneaten dog food down the garbage disposal not a good idea?) Clara (and the rest of us) seem to be adjusting and settling into a good routine. Joel especially (surprisingly?) seems to particularly enjoy having a dog. He does think I am crazy though, since I already suggested that when we get our bigger house some day I think we should get a second dog! (We will see if that sentiment lasts or not!)