Day 9 post-op

I am starting to make an attempt to condition Ember to the bigger crate.  I have been putting her meal dish in the big crate and leaving the door open.  I will begin doing a few treat games with it, too.  Because at some point, the gate will go on, and I want her to feel free to curl up in that crate as a "safe space" when she chooses to do so.

During puppy nap #1 on Sunday the 11th (day 9 since Ember's spay), I reconfigured the parlor into a "gated community" for her.  This is in its raw state, with the gate off, so that she could just go in and out and get used to this new "thing" in her space.  The couch was no longer circled by the X-Pen, because it's now been expanded to its full size, and the furniture shoved out of its way.

In other Sunday morning news, Ember chose to lay on the deck for a while right before puppy nap #1 began.  The Prisoner is on his corner of the deck rail, and Ember has not been "going after" him, showing pretty decent self-control.  I don't know if this would have happened naturally without the training games.

Woo-hoo, I could sit on the couch and sip my coffee while Ember chews on a pig's ear in the X-Pen, and she's NOT chewing on the couch.  

This does not mean she doesn't TRY when she's out to do so, but I keep tossing treats into the pen, or into the crate inside the pen, creating positive associations for her in that space.

I did not leave her in for long periods of time, but I did put her in while I went to the bathroom, for example.  

Between a short walk and her exposure to this new thing, and a couple rounds of "ItsYerChoice", she was worn out enough to start in on Puppy nap #2, and it's my goal to get a human nap in while she sleeps.

Well!  That did not go as planned!

After puppy nap #2, we had problems with Ember resuming her couch-disrupting behavior, whenever she was not actually in the X-Pen.  Tried a variety of distractions, but in the end, I reconfigured the parlor yet again!

Most of this damage was done before I reconfigured to the "gated community" arrangement.  

I'm not ready to abandon the couch.  But I guess she might finish destroying the one end table that doesn't fit inside the new configuration.  I fear for the bookcase.  Sigh.  Come on, "ItsYerChoice", mommy wants this game to "work" faster!

Patience, persistence, consistency.  Guess I'm moving too fast for my puppy again.

Still, Life is Good!  Keep Sparking!