I think the Husky in Spencer is making him difficult. We have only had him for one day, but still. The guy at the Pet Valu said that due to his breeds, Spencer will probably only accept one person as his Alpha. Because I've been the one spending time with him, I think he's looking to me as 'leader of the pack'. It's not a bad thing, and it doesn't bug me, it's just interesting.
He doesn't listen to everyone elses commands like he does to mine. As soon as I tell him to sit or come, he listens. He's at my feet in an instant - when I tell him to sit, he comes to me and flops his furry little hiney on the ground - and it's great. With everyone else? He hops around, runs in cirlcles, and then comes to me instead.
Also, I'm the only one disciplining him. My Ma, sister S, and cousin KE coddle him when he does bad things, or use the baby voice to scold him. I on the other hand, use a deep voice and tell him that he's bad.
However, some interesting stuff happened last night. Spence and I went for a nice, long walk in the park, and an old Jack Russell Terrier came barreling at him. He tried to run, so I sat on my knees to hold him close to me. I just wanted him to see that the JRT wasn't going to hurt him. Yeah, it didn't work to well. He started crying, and when I let him go he climbed up to hug at my shoulders, and whimper in my ear. I scooped him up and stood. Then, I realized that the JRT didn't have so much as a collar on.
And that the owner didn't have a collar or leash on her. How can you subdue your over active dog, without any of those things? I mean...It's illegal to have them off the leash. I wouldn't have cared if it was a dog park, because then it would have been my fault for his freak out, taking him to a dog park and not knowing how he would react. But this is a public park, that is frequented by children and other always-leashed dogs. To say I was annoyed, would be a major understatement. My eye twitched.
When we came home, Spencer had a treat for doing his business outside. He got a few more walks that night when they incident happened...Yesterday, I had put out a plastic pad with some papers on it. Well, we had a walk outside, and he did a small pee, then wanted in. We came back inside and I guess he wanted to have another one! But instead of going on the floor he ran right to the pad, had a pee, then gave me a deep whine, and apologetic look. I told him he was good for going on the pad, but he didn't get a reward for that, because I only want to
really encourage going outside.
Spencer didn't sleep with me last night. I couldn't handle him. As soon as he was in my room, he was crying. I even tried putting his plastic bad, and a dog bed on my floor, so he could sleep there instead. Nope. Cried at my door. He went to bed with mom, because I was so tired I was almost falling over. She brought the little bed into her room and he slept there all night, without a peep. I think Bella scares him, and the size of my room - it's so small, there's a foot of space on either side of my bed, so you can walk to it - bothers him, cause he likes to pounce.
This morning when I got up, S wasn't watching the pup, and he got ahold of
my shoes. Then he ate some cat food. Of course, as soon as I came out, my 'you're a bad boy Spencer' voice got him behaving again. He's so funny, when I come out, he wants to play, then sleep where he can have a clear view of me if he opens his eyes.
Oh, also: we have a crate now. He's not going to be in it a lot, and the cage is big enough that he can do jumps. We've just got it for when I need to go to the store during the day and stuff like that. Bed time, he's sleeping in moms room.
