Do they make Ritalin for dogs??

While she can melt you with those eyes, our newest family member and I are having a contest of wills. Yes, she is cute and adorable and fluffy, but she is also stubborn as hell! Our problem? She hates the heat. Well, I'm with ya' sister on that one!!! But because she hates the heat, she is really hating going out to go potty. We head out the door and she freezes - so I have to pick her up and bring her outside. You can just tell from her little body that she HATES this. We get out to her designated spot (ok - anywhere OUT SIDE OF THE HOUSE works for me, we will focus on targetting specific places when its cooler!) and she bolts like lightening back to the house and whines and howels at the door. I knew good and well that I'd clean up a pile or two (or ten) in the house, but this is getting rediculous!

The reason, however, that I think she may need ritalin is this - she is the most highly distractable puppy I've ever met! She actually reminds me of Matthew, who can loose concentration and focus in a nanosecond. This morning, she woke up at 5. While not cool by any means, it was not as hot at that hour and the sprinklers had just gone off so the grass was nice and wet.

The rest of this story may be too graphic for some, and I apologize for going into detail regarding the toiletting habits of my 9 week old pup, but soon I suspect I will be blogging about the toiletting habits of my 9 week old son, so just get used to it! Anyway - I figured that this hour of the day would be a good trial of our wills. We WERE going to stay OUTSIDE until she pooped, so help me God!

At one point, I thought I'd won, too... she went over the the official dog yard, and hda that look - anyone who has raised a pup knows that look... where they run a bit in circles and sniff wildly at the ground... She even took the stance - butt down, tail out... until I blew it!!! "Way to go Schooner!!" I quietly spoke under my breath. Kiss of death, that was! She literally forgot all about what she was doing and came running over to me. How on earth, when nature calls, can you FORGET what you are doing???

You know, I almost expect to be outsmarted by certain things in my life - my camera, my computer and even my kids... but I really want to draw the line at being outsmarted by a puppy!!