🐾 Housebreaking Progress (and Setbacks)
Stanley is doing pretty well overall — some days I’m convinced he’s completely housebroken, and then, out of nowhere, he’ll have an accident. It’s a journey.
He’s still not a fan of the outdoors. If it’s over 65° and sunny, he loves it and doesn’t want to come back in. But anything cooler, rainy, or even slightly cloudy? No thank you. Even with little jackets, he’ll turn around and bolt right back up the stairs to the door.
For now, we’re still using puppy pads in the house. Thankfully, he mostly uses them consistently.
🎓 Starting Dog Training Class
We start “Teenage Manners” class tomorrow! Fingers crossed he’s not the only tiny dog — it’d be nice for him to have a little buddy. He also starts Small Dog Playgroup next week, so we’ll see how that goes.
Some of the things I’m hoping to work on in class:
Better potty training habits
Reducing nipping
Food aggression
Chasing the cats
And I still can’t figure out how to teach him “lie down” — he’s so small it’s tough to lure him with a treat!
🐶 Evening Play & Snuggles
Stanley is a total love. He still gets crated during our dinner to prevent chaos with the cats, but once we’re done eating, we let him out and he gets super playful.
We sit on the floor and play fetch, and the cats even seem to enjoy the action. After that, Stanley crashes — we all move to the couch, and he curls up in someone’s lap and snoozes. It’s honestly my favorite time of day.
📦 BarkBox Review: 10/10, No Notes
I mentioned in a previous post that I ordered some BarkBox toys, and this week, Stanley got two boxes!
I saw an ad with some adorable toys that were only available to subscribers, so I signed up for a 6-month subscription. Let’s be real — 6 months’ worth of toys will probably last Stanley a lifetime. I opened the extra box of toys I picked out myself, and I have to say: these toys are awesome.
They’re: adorable, well made, and full of variety — squeakers, crinkles, textures, etc.
Stanley prefers plush toys, so that’s what I went with, and he genuinely loves every single one. His current favorite is a fried chicken bucket toy — it makes crinkly sounds, and he loves to chew it and carry it around. I need to get a better picture of him with his whole head in the bucket (which happens a lot).
The Chicken Bucket!
This sloth is almost as big as Stanley, but he loves it!
He also thinks the box that everything came in is pretty great!
The second box is our official BarkBox, which includes themed toys and treats. I got a bonus offer when signing up, so our first box has double toys and treats — can’t wait to open it this weekend, or as soon as I clean out the dog toy box and make room!
📣 Got Class Tips?
We’ll see how Stanley does in manners class this weekend — here’s hoping he doesn’t try to boss around the big dogs. 😅
If you’ve got any dog training class stories or tips for tiny dogs, I’d love to hear them! Let’s swap some puppy tales in the comments.