dogs

I have three dogs. Really, I should only have two, but I somehow ended up with three.

We have Fiat, a 4 year old Jack Russell mix who has every obnoxious trait of the typical JRT, but I adore him. He's my baby. He sleeps with me and enjoys eating all my underwear. He also does things like jump on the kitchen table and attempt to eat all my leftovers when he thinks I am not looking. Did I mention he's obnoxious? But I do love him. He's the smartest dog I'ev ever lived with, which certainly does not translate into good behavior. I did finish an obedience class with him 2 summers ago, but he promptly forgot everything he had learned. Or pretended to forget. Like I said, he's a typical JRT.

We also have Mabel, a 2 year old Pug mix who is possibly the world's ugliest dog. Elliot picked her out at the pound when she was 6 weeks old. I tried to talk him into something else, but he wanted the piggy looking black puppy with the bad underbite. Mabel is a sweetie, but she's not exactly loaded with personality. Elliot loves her, though and I must say, she's a good watchdog and very easy. Mostly she likes to lie on the sofa all day.

NOw we also have Duffy, whom I call Piglet. Duffy is a 12 week old Border Collie/Chow mix. We got him after Jane's beloved Dachshund, Cookie disappeared. I now believe Cookie was dognapped. Jane cried and cried and I was all torn up about it too and still miss Cookie a lot.

So Jane decided she wanted a border collie and now we have Duffy. We met Duffys mother, clearly a purebred Border Collie. They told us they thought Duffy's father was a chow and it's becoming clear they were right. He looks like a black bear cub and is getting really large. I think he's hoing to be a chow-sized dog.

He's asleep at my feet right now, but soon it will be time to put him in his crate for the night, which is NOT pleasant. I've crated him every night since bringing hom home well over a month ago and he STILL whines for at least 30 minutes every single time I make him go in. Usually, a puppy will do the whining thing for a week at most and then settle down and accept being crated overnight. Mabel actually loves her crate and goes in there just to hang out. Fiat prefers not to be crated, but when necessary, he runs in there without complaint and settles right down. But Duffy is NOT liking the crate and it's irritating to listen to him whine every night before he finally settles down.

Anyone with any tips?