A great weekend!

This weekend was a great one for Hinckley, Tyler and me. He had visits from Shannon (where he demonstrated mediocre manners) and Adam (he was a bit better), got a new crate (another!) and came pretty far with his barking/potty-training.

We decided to move him into my room for sleeping - he'll still stay in the kitchen for the day while I'm away, since it is the easiest to clean. But now that he's sleeping next to my bed, he's making it through the night! Till 6am at least. But this is a huge huge improvement from last week, and I'm really glad we got it figured out before I have to be back at work. I am soooo much better rested than I was at the beginning of last week - what a good call to take that week off!

We also got Hinck a new crate for next week. I wasn't too happy about buying another crate (I have Salty's old one which was free, plus one for the car/Tyler's place which we bought on craigslist for about $40) but both of those are full-size, and are more susceptible to accidents because pup's don't feel as much like they're soiling their bed area if its in a far corner. And though I jury-rigged a divider from a piece of tough cardboard, Hinckley was way to into jumping up on it and I was afraid he might hurt himself or just break it down while I was gone. This new crate has a built-in divider that is see-through like the rest of the crate, so he's much less interested in getting to the other side. It may only last him 6-8 months but I think it's worth it if it helps him with potty-training etc. And he seems to really like it, since its smaller and cozier.

Hinck's still having a few accidents in the big room (with the rug, ugh) so I'm trying to limit his time in there to only when he's just gone potty. He'll get the hang of it eventually. I'm bummed that my work schedule sort of dictates that I not completely crate-train him, since I know he can't hold it yet for the morning or the afternoon lengths. Hopefully in about a month or so, he can at least make it through the morning...I just hope that he doesn't get confused about when its OK to go inside vs. not. At the suggestion of Nancy, I'm going to put down a pan with shavings in it, and hopefully he'll get that its ONLY ok if he goes on the shavings. Aaah...house-breaking.

But really the main thing is that Hinckley is the cutest puppy ever. He is totally trying his hardest to bite only his toys and not me or Tyler, and he is completely loving both of us. Its very adorable. Look for more pictures coming soon!