Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day! Sobe's Family Gatherings

February 14th marked the arrival of the Year of the Tiger and also a day to celebrate love.  Happy Chinese New Year!!  Happy Valentine's Day!!  Rick and I were happy to have Sobe a part of the celebrations albeit the walks and pee-pee spills in between.  I was worried that the weekend celebrations would throw him off schedule but I tried my hardest to walk him and feed him around the usual times.  Sobe did have a couple of accidents at mine and Rick's parents' house despite sticking to the schedule.  It could've been from the excitement of being in new places and being around Boots (Rick's family's Pekinese) and Tarzan (my brother's Yorkie).  Then again, Sobe still has accidents at home despite his frequent walks!  Like I said, it's a work in progress!

New Faces, New Places

We took Sobe with us to visit Rick's dad, his brother and sister-in-law, Pat and Grace on Saturday evening for Chinese New Year's eve.  This is the time where Chinese families do ancestral worship and rituals at home and gather for dinner to welcome the new year.  Because we knew we would be there for most of the night, we packed Sobe's food, food dish, carrier, blanket, toys, and Nature's Miracle odor eliminator/cleaner for his accidents.  It was like packing a diaper bag for a baby!

When we arrived at Pat and Grace's place, I didn't let him out of his carrier until Boots the Pekinese sniffed him and didn't feel threatened.  Boots is not very social with other dogs and tends to display anxiety followed by aggression towards them so we were all trying to give Boots as much control over the situation as possible in his home and not overwhelm him.  Once Boots was done sniffing and felt that Sobe was okay, we let Sobe out.  At this point, Boots retreated and ran out of the room, not wanting anything to do with Sobe.  Sobe was very calm and relaxed and did not run after him.  I'm so happy that Boots accepted Sobe in his own way!  I think it helped that Sobe didn't agitate him by chasing after him to play.  When it came to interacting with people, Sobe loves to be cuddled and held.  He would go limp once someone holds him and allow the person to handle and manipulate him every which way.  Hmmm.... he's not really like that at home!  He's a bit more rambunctious and mischievous!

The very next day, we took Sobe to my parents' house to visit for New Year's day.  We didn't pack as much since my parents live only 10 blocks away.  Again, he was very social, mellow and calm and allowed everyone to hold him and cuddle him without struggle.  Makes me wonder if he doesn't like me very much since he's not like that with me!  (Hmmmm again.)  When Tarzan the Yorkie arrived, I brought Sobe outside to introduce them before going back in the house.  Tarzan being a more energetic dog played with Sobe for hours!  Sobe received an uncountable amount of wet willies because by the time I went to get him to leave, his head and ears were all wet from Tarzan licking him.  I think Sobe got him back because my brother said there was pee on the floor and Tarzan rolled all over it.  My brother and his wife had to deal with a smelly pee-matted Tarzan on their 45-minute drive back home. 

Needless to say, Sobe was exhausted that evening.  He slept quite a bit!  By the way, his walks have improved.  He is more willing to walk and we've conquered his fear of my building lobby.  My next goals will be for him to let me know when he has to go outside by sitting next to the door and knowing to use the wee wee pad if he has to go in between walks for emergencies.  The emergency wee wee pad has been set out since he arrived but he either ignores it or chews it up.  The past couple of days, he has gone to pee on it on his own but often times still has accidents elsewhere.  I'm also working on "lie down", "come here" and "stay".  He's about 75% done with the last two commands.  We and Sobe have survived Puppy Bootcamp week 1!!