It is gor-ge-ous here. Ok, well not specifically right now. Right now it’s drippy and dreary from rain, but it’s 56 degrees, is what I’m sayin! The past few days have just been downright springy. And I almost don’t know what to do.

After Christmas, I had myself all ready to settle in for a long winter’s nap in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa and National Geographic. We had a week which was referred to as the “Deep Freeze” wherein our hot and cold water lines to the washing machine started to freeze up. But after that it became positively lovely, and I will be darned if that’s going to change.

Every morning I wake up and hear the chirping of birds outside my breakfast nook window, and I brew myself some coffee and sit down to check my email. And when I take the dog outside, many afternoons I don’t need a jacket. I could really get used to this.

All this to say, in the midst of the “Deep Freeze” I had a heart to heart with Matt wherein I mentioned that um, hello, we’ve moved to Tennessee where it’s not sposed to be so darned cold, and we bought a house, and I had kinda hoped that when it was so darned cold out we could just open the dog door to the backyard and let Berlin outside without having to shoe up and jacket up and scarf up to keep her company. I mean, we’re not apartment dwellers anymore. We have a fenced backyard. Dog should do dog things back there without the need of an escort. So I asked, would he please put together a Behavior Modification Plan for Berlin?

And he did.

See, our pup loves being outside, and she loves romping in our backyard. But she doesn’t like being places without us. We are her security blanket, so she’d rather hold her bladder in the house all day than go outside by herself, bless her heart. When we take her outside for potty time, she needs us to go out the door, down the back deck steps and out into the grass with her. Then and only then will she pee and poop. But she might not do it in the dark because she’s scared of the dark.

Well let me just say, my husband is a brilliant man and my dog, despite her many fears, is very smart as well. Matt put together a plan, and the key was consistency – we each had to do the same exact thing when he took her out in the morning and I took her out in the evening. Gradually we would make her try harder things, which wound up being not so gradual because she’s a very quick learner. (Aside, will trade husband for a week of potty training your toddler in exchange for two David Gray tickets at the Ryman!)

We started off by making her use the dog door when she came back into the house. Then we would stand at the bottom of the deck steps but wouldn’t go out into the grass with her. Then we stood in the middle of the steps. Then at the top of the steps. She didn’t like that phase. Then we would stand at the top of the steps and she had to go both in and out of the house via the dog door. Let me also note that no treats were used. See, she’s not food motivated, she’s praise motivated. So there was a lot of yelping and “WAY TO GO, BIG GIRL!” And our neighbors officially think we are nutty!

Then yesterday as the sun was setting, I took her outside, and she zipped right out the dog door, down the steps and into the grass. I sat in an Adirondack rocking chair on the deck while she played in the backyard, completely out of my sight. She eventually brought me a ball which I threw off the deck and into the backyard for her and this version of “fetch” ensued for about a half an hour. Then towards the end, when it was completely dark, she flopped in the grass to rest out of my sight chomping on her ball. So I snuck into the house, and about two minutes later she was back in the house via her dog door.

Of course, the next step will be just saying “Wanna go outside?” and having her run over to her dog door and out into the backyard without anyone’s accompaniment whatsoever. We’re getting there.

But frankly, with this gorgeous spring-like weather, I kinda wanna be outside with her. You know, endorphins and whatnot.

From Daily Daguerreotype

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Daily Daguerreotype, Dog Park, Movin to the country. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.