Petey Moves In

When Petey came to live with us he had a lot of bad habits.
1. He got on the furniture whenever he wanted
2. He barked a lot - at every thing - a vicious rip your head off kind of bark
3. He shook like he had swallowed a vibrator
4. He licked his paws constantly
5. He pooped & peed in the house, mostly when he was mad at us. He had what we began to call The Petey Rules and when we broke a rule the house became his personal toilet.

These bad habits were a little embarrassing to us, particularly when we had company. The shaking thing was just annoying. Being good pet owners, we set out to break some of these habits and explained to our guests that he had recently come to live with us and we were working on the problems. We also discussed changing his name, but Petey just seemed to fit. His previous owners, however spelled his name "Peetie". We went with a more traditional spelling.

Petey has been with us seven years now, and I'm happy to report that:
1. Petey gets on the furniture whenever he wants, plus he has 'beds' in every room of the house.
2. Petey painstakingly patrols the house and lawn and reports to us immediately if there is any danger perceived or real by lots of loud, vicious barking.
3. Petey shakes only when he is cold or upset, which is anytime the temperature falls below 75, or there is loud noise, one of us is out of the room...stuff like that
4. Petey only licks his paws when he is excited or upset - see above
5. Petey only poops or pees in the house when he's mad at us, or when we break a Petey Rule, or he just can't hold it anymore. I'll have to do another post on the rules. There are a lot of them and often we are unaware of a rule until it is broken.

Overall Petey's behavior is much improved, wouldn't you agree? I think changing the spelling of his name and the time we painstakingly devoted to training him has really paid off!! BTW, Petey can spell - that too is another post!!

Thanks for reading!!

Petey's Beginning's

I love blogs. I have several blogs I check every day. I have wanted to join the fun for sometime, but most of the blogs I read are families with young children. They have lots of cute stuff to put on their blogs. I felt like I didn't have what it took to participate in this cyber-world until yesterday when I saw a blog about some one's pet. Then I remembered I have a pet and he is unique to say the least. People at work ask what he's been up to just like they ask about other people's children. So my blog is all about Pete.

The first few posts will have to be background. It takes a good bit of background to truly understand a petey-dog. He's very complex and one post would be too long for anyone to want to read.

For now we'll start with a few basics and how Petey came in to our lives. Petey is a rat terrier. If you know anything about dog breeds, you know that rat terriers are very nervous dogs. As a result Petey shakes a lot. But, John's first encounter with Petey was when he was a puppy, even before John & I met. John was working in his back yard and Petey came from his back yard through the neighbor's back yard and into John's yard in order to bark at him properly. Rat terriers are small dogs; but Petey doesn't seem to realize this. John tried to make friends with Petey, but he didn't want to be friends, so it became a personal challenge for John. Needless to say, John prevailed.

Fast forward until Petey was about 4 1/2 years old. John & I were married and both friends with Petey. His owner was moving and unable to take him to her new place, so she asked if we would be willing to adopt Petey. We agreed. That is how it all began.

I'll pick up the next post there.