Sometimes I think we are Crazy

My husband has been talking about getting another German Shepherd dog for quite some time. I'm not opposed to it, although I am opposed to all the dog hair sticking on the carpet. Yes, I know that sounds silly, but I'm somewhat allergic and my allergies go all haywire sometimes from Remmi so I can't imagine what adding another dog to the mix would do. I have a good vacuum so it's not that, it's just that dog hair gets embedded in carpet. There is no way of getting around it. My condition to getting another dog was that we need to rip out the carpet in the living and dining rooms (the upstairs is carpet free and the dogs don't go into the rooms in the basement). I never thought my hubby would agree to the condition, but then one day he did.

My hubby likes the soft carpet but he wanted another dog more. And then one day about three weeks ago we went and looked at GSD puppies. They stole our hearts. There was one male in particular that my husband was all about, and so we got a puppy!

His name is Reno and he's already a great dog. Remmi loves having a playmate all the time. I'm not going to lie, the first two weeks were REALLY hard. Reno was not crate trained and not house trained which we anticipated but still it was hard to get used to a puppy peeing and pooping in the house again. I think my husband was having a fit. I just kept reminding him that it really doesn't matter since we are taking the carpet out eventually anyway!

Crate training was essential since he wasn't house broken. We didn't want him peeing and pooping all over the house at night or when we went out. Also he doesn't know all the rules yet so leaving him unattended to roam free is so dangerous for him. The first week I got NO sleep. He liked his crate and would go in it but as soon as we left the room he whined. And I'm not talking about a little whimper, I'm talking about a full on spaz attack of loudness.  After keeping me up for hours whining I couldn't take it anymore and came downstairs where we was. As soon as he saw me he stopped crying. So I layed on the floor and slept next to his crate the first night. He did much better with me and Remmi there so the next night when it was the same thing, Remmi and I were back on the floor. As soon as he passed out I snuck back up to bed. The hubs was mad that I was down there with him, but I needed some sleep so badly! He had no problem sleeping through the big whine fest but I couldn't. After the first two nights I didn't sleep downstairs with him anymore, I let Remmi sleep next to him though and that helped. And finally, after the first week there was no more whining all night. He has such a small bladder that he couldn't hold himself all night so he does whine in the middle of the night to go out, but it's a lot better than all night whining.

Reno was pretty easy to break of peeing in the house and learned quickly that going to the door after a nap was essential. And that when I asked if he "wanted to go out" it meant to pee outside. And he picked up in the first week that when I told Remmi to "hurry up" it meant to go to the bathroom and he started peeing when I said "hurry up" as well. Breaking him of pooping in the house was a lot harder. He would do it when I turned my back for a minute and I just couldn't seem to catch him in the act! But once I got his pooping schedule down and started taking him out before it happened he did really well. Of course lots of praise was involved when he peed or pooped outside. Two weeks was all it took and he hasn't had any accidents indoors since. He runs to the door when he needs to go out. Although he doesn't wine at the door (and neither does Remmi) he sits in front of it and waits for you to take him out.

Reno is at this really great stage now where he just copies everything Remmi does. And she's a pretty good dog to copy.  They say training your 2nd dog is easier than the first because they learn from the first dog. I can see how this can be both good and bad. If the first dog is properly trained, training the second one can be a lot easier because they will copy the first one, but if the first one is misbehaving and allowed to misbehave then I can see the second dog picking up bad bad habits! I'm glad the hubs and I took the time to teach Remmi to be a good girl when we did. And I can't wait to see what a good boy Reno turns out to be.