Frustration

Whew, I had a long day yesterday. Work was long and boring, which was fine, but someone called and basically cussed me out because there was a break in communication between him and one of our supervisors. Why I was the one to receive his 'kind' words, I don't know, but he almost brought me to tears. Luckily, our supervisor called him back and set him straight. I just hope I don't ever have to talk to him again.

I got home and had to take care of the pup. He did so good yesterday while I was at work! He didn't go #2 in his kennel while I was gone, so he got a treat for that :D. After letting him outside for a few minutes, I had to go to the grocery store because we were out of dinner options :P. I got home and took the pup out again. I started getting dinner ready and heard him running up the stairs. I was elbow-deep in raw chicken, so I tried to finish up what I was doing so I could go check on him. I went upstairs and walked around to make sure everything was ok..... well.... I found 2 surprises. One nicely spread-out batch of poop at the end of the hallway and one puddle of pee by my bed. Keep in mind that our carpet is white. Needless to say, I was quite upset and had to clean it up so that it wouldn't stain.

I've been working with Magnum on the biting thing too. When we first got him, he would playfully nibble on my fingers, but it was really soft and didn't hurt at all. Now he just full-on bites me and it really hurts! I think that he thinks it's a game and that we're just playing, but I keep tapping him on the nose/head and saying "no" as sternly as I can manage. He doesn't bite Jason... just me. Does that mean he likes me more or???? I don't get it. Anyway, he'll be super sweet and snuggly one second, and the next, he'll be gnawing on my arm/shirt/pants/leg/etc. This has been happening more and more every day and doesn't seem to be getting better.

Fast-forward to bedtime. He ripped up my slipper (I was going to throw them away anyway, so this didn't bother me much) and then as I was getting into bed, I look up and he's peeing on the laundry I had set on the floor. I yelled "no no no no!", snatched him up and ran him outside, where he finished the job. I came back in and had had enough. I was so frustrated and exhausted that I started crying. Jason came in and said, "didn't you expect this to happen? He's still just a puppy, you know." Ugh... yes, I understand that, but I'm tired of being his maid and chew toy :P. I love puppies, but I really can't wait until he's house trained and bite trained. I have teeth marks all over my body and I'm getting a little tired of it :P.

So... I guess I'm writing this to get out some of my frustration as well as get suggestions. He's doing pretty good with the potty training - I definitely see improvements - so I don't think we need help there (we just need a baby gate to keep him from going upstairs). However, I need suggestions on the biting thing. Maybe I can rub Tabasco all over my body everyday so that if he bites me, he'll get a nice tingly tongue? ;) That's not so practical, though. What do/did you do about biting pets? I want to nip this in the bud ASAP, especially while he's still a puppy. Any help would be very appreciated. Also sleep. If anyone can give me a few extra hours of sleep at night, that would be fantastic. Let me know if you can help with either ;).

Have a great Thursday :).