Lola is here on a trial adoption, actually. Yesterday they played almost constantly when allowed today . . . today it seems Chester is played out. They played a bit on the bed this morning, but since then Chester seems to just want to relax (or eat his beef tendon).

The hard part right now is that since Lola isn’t housetrained, she just can’t be left unsupervised at all. And since she doesn’t have obedience training either, she doesn’t know how to stay or sit (although she’s already learning “sit”). We don’t want to keep them crated all the time, but Chester still can’t run loose — and Lola whines in her crate when we leave the room.

That’s the biggie. We’ve just gotten to the point with Chester where he can relax in a crate when we’re not there for a while (usually as long as he has a chew). But Lola won’t relax if we aren’t there even if she does have something to eat — shades of Chester months ago.

Is it a phase that will quickly pass? Will she be able to relax more when they can “really” play and she’s more tired? I have spent the last month or so (not to mention all those months all along) trying to get Chester to the point where we can leave him, which means not doing the things I want to do — like go out to eat or the movies. It also remains to be seen whether or not Lola gets so anxious that she’ll have accidents.

We do leave her for brief periods of time occasionally, and she whines — which basically upsets everyone. Sometimes she even howls. I don’t go to her when she’s whining, of course, but sometimes it’s hard to find 10 seconds when she quiet. I don’t make a big deal of leaving her or coming back — I just do it.

It’s hard on my husband because I go to bed before he does, so he has to figure out some way to have the both of them in the office with him. If he has Chester in the bed next to him, and Lola in her crate, she whines (and he’s not as good at ignoring her). We tried putting down the large bed I bought for them this afternoon, and while Chester was happy to settle down on it, Lola just was wandering all around.

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