Berry vs. Holly

Berry 2 - Holly 0

So...my sweet little puppy has decided to take this week to test my patience. She has been quite the pistol. Yesterday, I literally screamed at her like a complete lunatic. I felt somewhat crazy and apologized to her later, to which she responded by snapping at my hand when I tried to pet her. A-hole. I am going to blame my hormones and assume that my puppy has not recently become possessed by Satan, but I am not entirely sure.

Yesterday when I was getting ready for work, I put Berry and Buster outside to play and do their business and whatnot. I let them play for at least 45 minutes. I went outside to check on them and Berry was nowhere to be found. I freaked out and thought she had run away, but she came wiggling her bad little self back under the fence. She got out where the flooding waters washed away part of our yard underneath our fence. I was glad she came back and that she didn't run away. She scared me! When I let them in, Berry followed me into the bathroom and proceeded to pee on one of the bathroom rugs. She had literally JUST come in from outside and she peed! She was doing better but this week, her potty training and overall behavior training has taken a turn for the worse. When I took the bathroom mat to the laundry room, Berry took that time to poop in front of the television. At that point, I was certain that she was only doing these things to test my patience and piss me off. I cleaned up her poop and returned to the bathroom to finish getting ready, where she and Buster played a rousing game of "bite Buster's face," and she barked with her atrocious, high pitched, shrill puppy bark until I lost all control and screamed at her like a total and complete psych patient.

Today was not quite as bad as yesterday, but she still tested my patience. I will remain calm. She is a puppy and I am the master. I will win. I will not let her drive me to insanity. (Hopefully my friends and family will visit me in the asylum).

In all seriousness, I love her and know that she is behaving like any puppy behaves. I just thought other people might find my annoyances funny. I am hopeful that if we can hang on until Billy gets done with school and can be home more to work with her, we will lick this potty training and her other behavioral issues in no time. It's hard when she's in her crate all day long so I can't really blame her for acting out when she finally gets out. Well, I haven't heard any barking or crying (from Buster) in a while, so I am going to make sure the dogs are still in the backyard.