Our puppy is adorable but how do we LIVE with her?

[Mama Kim]

Our almost 12 week old pup, Piper, is so adorable. We really love her. But I find myself feeling trapped with her. We spend all our time either gated into the kitchen or in our fenced in back yard. I thought she was doing great with the housebreaking but if I let her in any of the other rooms in the house, she almost always has an accident. This rarely happens in our kitchen. How do I get her to understand that she cannot use the rest of the house as her potty? And what are some fun things to help keep her amused during the day so that I can get some work done? If I leave the kitchen she cries and whines so I find myself sitting on the floor with her all the time. I'm really over it. Things can't go on like this because I need to be able to get things done, especially since my husband is gone all week and it's just me, Piper and our three boys. I don't remember having this much trouble with our first cairn. Of course, I worked full time then and am a stay-at-home mom now so my days are just consumed by this puppy. Help!!!!!!

[Posey]

Dear Mama Kim, I have been where you are at-and I am still there. Nicky is 12 months old. When I leave the kitchen or leave him alone. He does the same as Piper. And I rush back to him. Not at much as I did. I usually work around him. Piper is a little baby puppy. I finally realized that about Nick. And I don't expect him to be house trained until he is two or so. I don't leave him unattended except in his crate. If you let Piper run around she will have accidents. But I have a lot of carpet-so we have to be extra careful with Nicky. With children I know you job is harder. But if it makes you feel better, we stayed home a lot with Nicky the first six months.

Posey

[Mama Kim]

Posey, thanks for your reply. I'm feeling frustrated because I don't remember our other cairn being so much trouble to us. I remember when she stopped having accidents in the house because we had just moved into a new city/new apartment and she never had another accident once we moved (well, maybe a few, but not many) and she was about 4-5 months old. Piper is nearly three months so she IS still a baby and I have to remind myself of that. Plus we live in a big house compared to the apartment we were in with our first one. So I need to take all these things into consideration. She just seems to be so easily bored and wants me to play ALL the time and I hate to leave her alone when she wants to play. My husband says I need to let her get used to spending small parcels of time alone so she will learn to amuse herself. I'm just so confused about how much time is too much time to spend entertaining her. I've got to find a toy that will keep her attention for more than a few minutes. Even the Kong toys only occupy her for 15 minutes or so. She's a wily one. But awfully darn cute too!!

[Posey]

Mama Kim,

You said "She's a wily one. But awfully darn cute too!!" Does that not sum it up for us. They just steal your heart. We took pictures of Nicky from the time we bought him home up til now. Like our baby. Sometimes I just have to get hom and hug him. Much to his distain as he much prefers to play then Ugh, get hugged. But I hug him anyway-so just love Piper all you want before you know this troublesome puppy stage will be over. And you will be like me looking at all the cute little Cairn puppy Pictures on the net.

Posey

[Mama Kim]

Well, we had a really good day today. She can be as good as gold 95% of the time, but that other 5% . . . She's a rascal but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Posey]

I remember when Nicky and I started having good days. Made me know that good days were ahead after he would get a little older. But I yearn for those cute little fluff days when he was a baby. So I look at pictures on the net of baby puppys.

Posey

[Guest]

Mama Kim and Posey,

I really feel better when I know Reb is not the only puppy that can cause so much trouble . After last week at class I wasn't going back because he decided to do things his way...not even for a treat would he come to anyone in the class! The instructor said lets make him jealous and he will come to you. Well it didn't matter if I held another puppy or if I left the room he was happy doing his own thing. I almost didn't go back but I thought I would try one more time and we had a really fun class. He really likes jumping and going through tunnels I guess I will enjoy the good days because they do happen. All you can do is laugh and move on.

Hecocks that little head and give you the look and that's all it takes and all is forgiven.

Liz