Wed 01/21/2009 10:49 AM

a year and a half of brooskey

He's ridiculously cute and he knows it.

Brooskey is almost eighteen months old. He has made some huge strides in growing up over the past couple of weeks, and we're incredibly proud of him. We met with a dog trainer to learn how to address some barking issues we were having, and while we didn't take all of his suggestions, the ones we did follow have made a world of difference, not just in his barking, but in his behavior in general.

The first step was to reclaim his food and toys as things that belong to us, which he earns the privilege of eating/using by behaving correctly and obeying commands (sitting nicely and performing at least one other command are the equivalent of a human child saying "please"). It makes perfect sense when you think about it; what incentive is there to behave when you already have everything you want? He is fed on a schedule, and required to "say please" as I described above before the food dish is set down. He gets to play with a toy, for a period of time, when he has behaved well. When quiet time comes, i.e. our evening TV watching, the toys get put away. Additionally, if he and Vixen fight over a toy, no matter who instigated it, the toy goes away.

Brooskey regards all attention, negative or positive, as a reward - so instead of yelling at him or correcting him when he is misbehaving, we completely ignore him. If he is jumping or barking for attention, we turn our backs and/or leave the room. When he stops, then we reward him with attention, a treat, or a toy. When he commits sock/underwear thievery, instead of chasing him, we shower Vixen with attention and give her a treat for being a good girl, and most of the time he will drop the stolen object, at which time he gets rewarded, too. This has made our household so much calmer and more peaceful, that in turn we have more patience, not just with him, but with each other and everything else.

[babyproof locks for lever door handles]

Childproof locks for lever-style door handles. Brooskey-proof, but not Carly-proof.

The trainer thought that part of what was upsetting Brooskey so much when we would leave him alone, was just that he was uncomfortable being in his crate for so long. He suggested penning him in the hallway instead, so he would have some room to walk around and play with his Kong toy. Which, by the way, is his one special toy he only gets when we leave. We fill it with peanut butter or cream cheese and freeze it so it will last a while, and it gives him something to actually look forward to when Mom and Dad go away. There was one small problem... due to the lever-style handles we installed for my accessibility, Brooskey is able to open the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom, rooms we definitely did not want him getting into when we're not around. So we went to Babies'R'Us and found some childproof locks which miraculously are not Carly-proof. We're able to lock those doors when we don't want him in there, and unlock them when we want to be able to easily enter and exit the rooms ourselves. And best of all, we didn't have to make any extra holes in the doors to install them, which means no repair work needed when it's time to sell the condo.

The other problem with penning him in the hallway is that he was able to jump over the gate in about five seconds after we walked out the door. After he escaped two days in a row but didn't get into any other trouble, we stopped putting the gate up, and he now has free roam of the house, minus the locked rooms. (Vixen remains crated for her own safety, but she doesn't mind it at all - as long as we don't waste time letting her out when we get home.) We continue to check up on him often, but he has behaved like a perfect angel. Our neighbor upstairs tells us he still barks from time to time - just normal dog stuff - but has not had a single flip-out session since we stopped crating him. This isn't to say that crate training is bad, just that there comes a time when a dog outgrows it, and Brooskey has reached that time.

[Brooskey and Vixen hanging out together on the couch]

See how much they love each other?

As a result of completely eliminating the crate from Brooskey's life, both of the dogs now sleep in the bedroom with us at night. We had tried to have just Brooskey sleep with us, leaving Vixen in the crate... but Brooskey wouldn't have it. He refused to go to sleep until Vixen was in the room. He cried and scratched on the door until Chris let him out, and he ran right to Vixen's crate and looked at Chris as if to say, "What about her?" Surprisingly, having them in the room doesn't disrupt our sleep too badly. It takes a few minutes to get them settled down, but after that they mostly sleep through the night, only getting up once in a while to move to a new position.

Vixen, by the way, is doing just fine as well. She's developed this adorable, sassy little attitude, and I love it. The other night when we went to bed, she started her usual face licking attacks. When Chris told her no, it was time to sleep, she responded by covering his mouth with her paw and growl-whining at him - repeatedly. It was absolutely hilarious, and it was all either of us could do not to fall out of bed laughing. It was even funnier recalling it the next morning. She really is very well-behaved, but I love that she has just that little bit of sass to her personality.

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a year and a half of brooskey

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