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As you probably know by now, I love our little dog Phoebe. She makes me laugh multiple times a day. She’s a joy to have around 99% 95% of the time. Sometimes I wonder if she’s fully aware that’s she’s actually a canine though

Today I took her downstairs to potty and noticed it was actually really beautiful outside. The potty area, while not fenced in, is basically enclosed because it’s surrounded by buildings. I ran around with her a little bit but thought she might have more fun if I got some toys. We ran upstairs, grabbed a ball and a squeaky toy and went back down for what I anticipated would be a fun little game of fetch.

It started out just fine. I kept her lease on so that if she took off I’d have something to grab. I don’t want to jinx anything but so far she’s not the type to make a break for it. Also, if I tell her to stop? She does. Even I’m impressed. Anyway, this was the beginning

Aw! So cute and she seemed to be having a good time.

Very quickly though she seemed to forget the point of the game. I’d throw her ball or toy and she’d run like the wind for it, sniff and then….

Notice the toy way off in the distance? And she’d stand there looking at me like, “What are you going to throw now?”

Eventually it was just a game of throw the toy, run to the toy and…

“Oh look, a hole!”

I tried showing her how to run to the toy and pick it up. I’d squeak it and get her all excited only to throw it and have her completely lose interest. It was like she was thinking

“I just got that thing for you and you throw it away again?!”

So yeah, that whole movie image of a good game of catch with my dog? Not so much… Obviously she is in no part retriever.

More like papillon with a side of ADD.

Phoebe wants you to vote for us!

Phoebe is a great dog. Everyone who meets her loves her. Even people who don’t really like small dogs like her. She’s just a likable girl (she takes after me). She’s also generally really well behaved.

However, she’s not perfect and being 17 months old she’s going through a phase where she is constantly testing her boundaries. It drives me crazy. The thing about dogs is, it’s hard to correct behavior. If you wait a split second too long they have no idea what you’re correcting. Even if you don’t wait too long it’s always questionable if they have any idea what you’re talking about. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “Why don’t you just speak English?!” to her.

Obviously I don’t expect perfection (ok maybe I kind of do) but when she acts like “come here” means let’s play a fun game of tag, barks at us for no reason or uses our legs as chew toys I get really frustrated. There’s just not much I can do. Obviously yelling at her won’t work because of the whole not speaking English thing. Everything I’ve read says that putting her in her kennel isn’t a good idea because that’s supposed to be her safe spot. We’ve tried just walking away and shutting her out but that also gets annoying when we have to do it every couple of minutes. Sometimes I think she wants to kick us out of the room.

There are times when she just needs a time out. Where to do it though? Not in her kennel because that’s not supposed to be used as a punishment. Not in any particular room because she always seems to find something to get into so I don’t think she’d view it as a punishment. Our little one bedroom apartment only offers so many options.

In a moment of desperation I stuck her in a confined area that we just happened to have laying around and surprisingly it worked! She easily could jump out but so far she doesn’t. When I went back and took her out she listened very nicely… at least for about five minutes. Trust me, at this point I’ll take what I can get.

Behold, our very own naughty spot.

Super Nanny would be so proud.

Once a month there is a papillon play group at the dog training facility I take Phoebe to. She always has such a blast and comes home exhausted (bonus!). I’m fairly certain there is nothing cuter than a herd of papillons. They’re so fun to watch. See for yourself.