The hair raising adventures of puppyhood. Day 4

As usual, this is for the benefit of those people who will inevitably adopt a Newfie, come home, and wonder "What the hell did I do?!"

I promise these will get less frequent over time as Honeybear settles into her place with the family. Days 3 and 4 were very different from the first two. Honey is now pretty settled in the home and very comfortable. Where the first two days saw her occasionally fear entering some rooms, she's now confident in walking into any room. She's also a little more brave in approaching the cat. They have a mixed relationship. He's pretty tolerant of dogs, even in all her puppy enthusiasm, but she still pushes his limits and ends up getting whapped on the nose by him. She's also much more vocal today than any day before (again with that cat....)

Honey takes direction well and is eager to please, but her puppy nature still gets the better of her. She'll stop when you tell her to, but she won't remember that you told her to stop just 30 seconds ago. Then of course there's just puppy stupidity in all its glory:

Step 1: Drink a ton of water and make sure to splash your face in it. Step 2: Stick your head in the cat's litter box and test just how efficiently it clumps to your fur!

Our days were filled with firsts. We had our first walk. It went well enough, I suppose. Our route isn't very long, but she's getting adjusted to the act of walking. She tends to stick close without too much pulling, but it's too early to see how training this will go. We also had our first vet appointment. She has a minor intestinal parasite but otherwise a clean bill of health and whole lot of attention from everyone at the clinic where she was just the star of the show.

Crate training continues to be the answer for most things. Based on some suggestions, we took some steps to cool off her crate, including pulling out the bedding, and she's been sleeping much more comfortably. Last night, except for one time I had to wake her up to go outside, we pretty much slept through the evening. Puppyhood is so much easier to endure with a full night's sleep. Speaking of endurance, the housebreaking is still the real challenge to try my nerves. There are things she does really well and then there are challenges.

(This would be a great time for your tips!) When we let her out, she immediately pees just about every time. It's nice and very helpful at night when I just want to get back to bed. Door opens, she runs to the grass, does her thing, and life goes on after proper praise and treats. Pooping is a little more challenging. I can get her to go outside, but I find myself watching for signals (pacing around rapidly sniffing the ground is her big one) before it's worth trying. She also still occasionally pees in the house, but this gets a little more rare every day. After all, she's still a puppy and understanding why those weird monkey-things care so much about her bladder is strange. Pooping in the house is an entirely different matter. She doesn't seem to recognize that pooping also needs to happen just outside. Maybe it's because she pees so much more often that we just get more training opportunities, but I feel like her bowels are conspiring against me. Then there's the second level of the house. It shouldn't be a surprise, but she doesn't have much concept that this counts as "den" space and not somewhere you should go. My poor daughter's room is her paws-down favorite to use as a bathroom. We catch it, we give her a stern "No", tell her "outside" and then carry her out. Does she care? Can't tell.

It's not all hard work. Today I watched as the kids played with her in the yard until she was exhausted. She still play nips on occasion, but we've taught the kids how to correct her and she's starting to follow their lead a little. She's a lot of fun for them and they love her to death, even when she's a troublemaker.