Oy, Orent, Oy!

***ALERT: This post deals almost entirely with puppy housebreaking. Maybe not breakfast reading?***

The morning started (the real morning, not the 3:30am wide-awake puppy morning) well. Kaytee took Orent out, trained him, and fed him. We played with him outside his crate, no accidents. He got sleepy and went back in his crate where he slept hard. Too hard. For too long.

I forgot we hadn't done a 7-ish outing (blame my lack of uninterrupted sleep, please). So I let him sleep until 8:45 and when he woke up and gave the teensiest whine, I didn't spring to my feet like I would have if I'd been thinking. So... he peed in his crate. It surprised both of us. He's just sitting there in this puddle, looking at it like, "where's that coming from?" If I hadn't know he was a 2-month old puppy, I'd have thought he'd discovered a natural spring.

I scooped him up in a towel, dried him off, and took him downstairs where he pooped. I brought him upstairs, quickly puppy-proofed the bathroom, and put him in there while I squirted some Nature's Miracle in his crate and started a load of laundry. Meanwhile, Orent discovers... toilet paper! God's greatest gift to toddlers and puppies. He was suitable impressed and amused. He didn't want to leave the bathroom!

Then I figured he needed a little more play to let out all that pent-up "I have discovered toilet paper! I am puppy! Hear me yap!" so we played chase the bone in the hallway. All this is unlikely to have taken more than 20 minutes. So I was really surprised when he went into the bedroom and promptly peed on the floor. So surprised that I just stood there and said "Oh, puppy..." while he finished peeing and went to chew on the doorstop spring. I recovered my wits eventually, wiped up the accident before we tracked it around, and decided we were going outside again while his crate finished drying.

Since his bladder was clearly empty, I thought it would be a fine time to walk down the stairs. That and I had already put one shirt in the laundry from holding a pee-y puppy. We made it down the first set with not much fuss, but something about the second set really bothers him. Really. So much so that he peed again on the landing. I still made him walk down the second set of stairs, which he did.

When we got outside, he peed and pooped again. Someone must be feeding and watering him when I'm not looking... Robot, perhaps? Trying to sabotage the project so we have to return him (just kidding, Robot, he's not going anywhere 'til November 2012)?

I brought him upstairs, wiped out his crate with a paper towel to remove any last Nature's Miracle and set him in there after a quick practice at our new and improved (puppy on the floor) cradling. Then I cleaned up the landing (sorry neighbors, the good news Nature's Miracle really is just that) and sat down to vent in this blog post before going to take a shower. Oh, and clean up the toilet paper. And de-puppy-proof the bathroom. And put the laundry in the drier. Oh, Orent, it's a good thing you're cute...

(If you don't believe me, now might be a good time to check for updates to Orent's flickr album and Facebook album)