November 21 2012 Getting used to the family

Shorty has a lot to learn about living with a family.  He hated the leash - he tried sitting down, whirling around at the end of it, and when that didn't work, he tried to bite it.  He also wasn't any good at staying inside; he would try to slip out the door every time it opened.  And he double-hated his kennel.  Randy took on the task of fixing all this.  He took Shorty for walks every day until Shorty learned to enjoy it.  He is still in the process of teaching him "Stay", but Shorty does much better and doesn't always try to sneak out now.  And to fix the kennel problem, each night Randy put Shorty in the kennel, put the kennel on one recliner, and slept in the other recliner next to him.  That way Randy could comfort Shorty when he whined and take him out in the middle of the night, until Shorty understood that the kennel is just a bedroom for sleeping, not a jail for punishment.  It took 4 nights in the recliner to get to that point across, but now he sleeps through the night.

Then yesterday, when everything was much so better, we complicated the situation by taking Shorty to the vet to get fixed.  Some of Shorty's baby teeth were still in his mouth, crowding his adult teeth, so he also got 4 baby teeth removed.  Now he is sore on both ends.

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