So easy to lose my patience

The past week has been an adventure as we get accustomed to have Colby here. Especially since Justin left on Sunday evening for a 2 day training up in Chicago and I was on my own to take care of our new puppy. For those of you who have never tried to housetrain a young dog - it is no fun.

Sunday evening was nothing but headache for me as I tried to finish getting tests graded for my students while Colby barked almost the whole time. Then on Monday morning I kept taking him out to try to potty but he wouldn't do it - instead he waited until we had come back inside so he could poop on the floor in my bedroom. I grabbed him and took him out again (this time in my underwear) for him to just stand outside and whine until we came back in. I barricaded him in the kitchen (so I thought) to run upstairs and finish getting ready. 2 minutes later - he has pooped on the floor in the kitchen so I get the joy of cleaning it up before leaving for class.

On MWF my schedule is that I go teach my 2 classes and am gone for close to 4 hours. I come home to eat lunch and then head back up to the college where I meet up with a high school kid that I am tutoring in AP Statistics. When I got home from school, I see that I had not successfully barricaded Colby into the kitchen since I find him underneath the couch. He is so small that he can fit through the gate that we bought to keep him in the kitchen. It was not easy to find a gate to fit a 5 foot opening and the one we found doesn't do us any good! I take him out, feed him and take him out again but can't get him to potty before I have to leave to get back to the school. An hour and a half later when I get home I find that he has pooped in his crate so it is now all over him and his pad, his two little stuff toys and a chew rope we had in there for him.

The chew rope goes in the trash - the other items go in the washer and Colby goes in the tub (something that he does not seem to like very much). After I get him clean, I take his crate outside to hose it down and get it clean. The rest of the day and Tuesday both go very well and I think that his little accident on Monday is an isolated incident. Until Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday, Justin is home so Colby gets fed his breakfast a bit earlier than normal all in the hopes that we will be able to get him to potty before I have to leave for class. Everything seems to be going well - he even went to the bathroom outside about 15 minutes before I had to leave. So I stuck him in his crate and ran upstairs to brush my teeth and change my clothes. No more than 5 minutes later when I came back downstairs - he was covered in poop. Urgh! So here I was - already in my nicer clothes having to give him a quick bath, put his stuff into the washer again, and get his crate cleaned out before I can leave. Luckily I made it to class on time since I really don't have the luxury of being able to show up to work a few minutes late on occasion.

Now this morning even though I had taken him out 45 minutes earlier and he did his business, I found a pee stain in his crate that wasn't there when I took him out less than an hour earlier. I know he is just a baby, but supposedly they don't like to go where they sleep (I think he is proving that wrong) and since he is 2 months old, he is supposed to be able to go for about 3-4 hours without having to be taken out. I have a whole list of things that I need to do - but I am not doing any of them because I finally got him to sleep but if I get up he will wake up and chances are mess in his crate again. Grrr. I think that Justin should take a couple days off work so that he can take care of the dog all day and I can get some stuff done.