Week 2
Week two with Oliver brought plenty of surprises. I'm always giving Kyle a hard time about never planning surprise outings for us, but after this past week, I think I've decided I don't like them anymore.
I was home with Oliver on Saturday and things went so good! We both had a lazy but productive day. I found out that aside from sporting events, Oliver loves watching cartoons on TV. Unfortunately we don't watch a lot of cartoons around here but every now and then we'll turn it to Nickelodeon, and his ears perk up.
So after a great day on Saturday, we decided that we'd take him to Greg and Stacie's gender reveal party the next day. The plan was to pack up just after church and head that way. Unfortunately, when we got home, we found out that Oliver had been busy tearing up the dining room rug from inside his cage. He got in trouble and had to wait outside while we cleaned up the mess and packed the car. Then we loaded him up and were on our way. He's usually very good in the car, but he was pacing back and forth and couldn't calm down. I think the poor thing thought we were taking him back or something. I was glad when we got there and he got to run around and play. He did very good around the little ones and didn't run off when we let him out in the yard. (Greg and Stacie live in the country and don't have a fence.)
Monday passed without incident, and we finally got him so appropriate chew toys, so I thought we were over the hump. But on Tuesday when I came home from lunch, he was whimpering in his cage, which was on the opposite side of the dining room. He'd managed to flip it over on its side and cave in the bottom, breaking the hinges and one of the latches (and scraping our wall in the process). So he spent the afternoon outside, digging up our yard near the fence line.
At this point Kyle and I were pretty frustrated and not sure what to do. We let him in and headed to Petco for a new cage. We ended up leaving with a bunch of stuff that was supposed to help him, including some calming tablets. I could tell one of the workers didn't approve of them, but the trainer there said they worked, and since I would have taken some calming pills myself, I figured they'd be fine for Oliver. When we got home we gave him a bath, which went better than I expected, but we forgot to let him out first, so he peed on our comforter. Poor guy, he has such inexperienced parents.
On Wednesday, we doggy-proofed the living room to the best of our ability, gave him the calming tablets, left a radio on and put one of Kyle's old T-shirts on the couch. It worked like a charm that morning, but when I came home from work in the evening, Oliver had chewed our coffee table and gotten his heart worm medicine off of our tall table in the kitchen and eaten it! All of it. I had no idea what to do. I tried calling the vet, but I got the answering machine. After that I couldn't' get a call out because apparently AT&T's network was down. So I just sat there, staring at him and worrying. He was acting fine, so I didn't think he needed to go to the emergency room or anything. I finally was able to get online and look up the medicine he took. It said it was safe for dogs even if they ate an entire package, so that calmed my fears a bit. We went to life group and to our surprise, our house was in one piece when we got home.
Thursday went great. He did manage to get a small bag of tortilla chips off the counter and ate those, but considering some of the earlier alternatives, I was OK with that. Friday, he continued his good behavior, but I'm not sure it counts since I was home sick for half the day. On Saturday, I was home with him until the afternoon when I left for Hennessey to decorate for Kim's shower. Apparently, he didn't appreciate being left alone because when Kyle got home, he had gotten into the office, spreading the contents of the trash can all over the room, eating a candle and a coaster, and destroying a fox figurine that Stacie had gotten me. So Kyle set up cage number two and put him in it before he headed to the OSU vs. KU game. When he got back, Oliver had disassembled the cage and was sitting on the couch.
Sunday we were in Hennessey. The plan was to keep him outside, but with such cold temperatures and snow, we let him hang out in the garage and house most of the day. He did good for the most part and only tried to escape his crate in the garage a few times.
Today is a snow day, so I'm home with him. It makes me worry about how he's going to be tomorrow when I'm not around, but I guess we'll see how it goes. I am just looking forward to the day my stomach doesn't drop just before opening my front door. These days I'm never quite sure what will be waiting for me, but despite it all, I am am falling in love with this silly dog who is a great cuddle buddy.
I was home with Oliver on Saturday and things went so good! We both had a lazy but productive day. I found out that aside from sporting events, Oliver loves watching cartoons on TV. Unfortunately we don't watch a lot of cartoons around here but every now and then we'll turn it to Nickelodeon, and his ears perk up.
He likes to sit on the patio furniture, so this is where we found him when we were done cleaning up the mess.
Monday passed without incident, and we finally got him so appropriate chew toys, so I thought we were over the hump. But on Tuesday when I came home from lunch, he was whimpering in his cage, which was on the opposite side of the dining room. He'd managed to flip it over on its side and cave in the bottom, breaking the hinges and one of the latches (and scraping our wall in the process). So he spent the afternoon outside, digging up our yard near the fence line.
At this point Kyle and I were pretty frustrated and not sure what to do. We let him in and headed to Petco for a new cage. We ended up leaving with a bunch of stuff that was supposed to help him, including some calming tablets. I could tell one of the workers didn't approve of them, but the trainer there said they worked, and since I would have taken some calming pills myself, I figured they'd be fine for Oliver. When we got home we gave him a bath, which went better than I expected, but we forgot to let him out first, so he peed on our comforter. Poor guy, he has such inexperienced parents.
On Wednesday, we doggy-proofed the living room to the best of our ability, gave him the calming tablets, left a radio on and put one of Kyle's old T-shirts on the couch. It worked like a charm that morning, but when I came home from work in the evening, Oliver had chewed our coffee table and gotten his heart worm medicine off of our tall table in the kitchen and eaten it! All of it. I had no idea what to do. I tried calling the vet, but I got the answering machine. After that I couldn't' get a call out because apparently AT&T's network was down. So I just sat there, staring at him and worrying. He was acting fine, so I didn't think he needed to go to the emergency room or anything. I finally was able to get online and look up the medicine he took. It said it was safe for dogs even if they ate an entire package, so that calmed my fears a bit. We went to life group and to our surprise, our house was in one piece when we got home.
Oliver was so excited for us to be back:
Thursday went great. He did manage to get a small bag of tortilla chips off the counter and ate those, but considering some of the earlier alternatives, I was OK with that. Friday, he continued his good behavior, but I'm not sure it counts since I was home sick for half the day. On Saturday, I was home with him until the afternoon when I left for Hennessey to decorate for Kim's shower. Apparently, he didn't appreciate being left alone because when Kyle got home, he had gotten into the office, spreading the contents of the trash can all over the room, eating a candle and a coaster, and destroying a fox figurine that Stacie had gotten me. So Kyle set up cage number two and put him in it before he headed to the OSU vs. KU game. When he got back, Oliver had disassembled the cage and was sitting on the couch.
Sunday we were in Hennessey. The plan was to keep him outside, but with such cold temperatures and snow, we let him hang out in the garage and house most of the day. He did good for the most part and only tried to escape his crate in the garage a few times.
Asher liked the idea of seeing Oliver but did NOT want him to get anywhere close to him. When Oliver was out of the garage, you could find Asher either in our arms or on the back of the couch armed with his sword!
He's not allowed on the leather furniture, but Dad is a softy.
Love the videos and pics! Hang in there!
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