Election night

Riley is doing really well.

His coat is starting to lighten. In some light it doesn't look so much like it is lightening up, but in other light it REALLY does. I was looking at pix of him from when we first saw him and yes, I think his coat is starting to lighten in spots.

Still no forehead wrinkles and he has yet to wag his tail.

He did ok on the leash tonight. But he stops ALL THE TIME and it's walk-yank-walk-yank-walk-yank. I'm so sick of that.

He's SO good in his pen. His pen is in the kitchen on the tile, while is crate is upstairs in the bedroom next to the bed. In his pen he's SO good. He only barks when I am preparing his food, and he either entertains himself w/ his toys or goes to sleep.

But lately he seems to hate his crate. He cries alot longer when I go to bed then he ever did. And he cries around 7:30am so I take him out to potty and then put him back in and I go back to bed. (I'm a night owl, I stay up late and then sleep late.) Well, he cries and cries and barks. He seems to really hate it when he didn't before. I'm not sure what to make of that.

He still SITS and DOWNS on command. If he sees the treat bag in my hand, or his food bowl in my hand, he SITS! I mean that real deliberate SIT that he does on command. Like, "See? I'm a good boy, I'm sitting! Gimme food!"

Sometimes he sits when people approach him. (I tried to teach him that.) But other times he jumps and bites, and he doesn't always sit if he's distracted (like when he's on the leash).

I'm dying to get him into training. He seems VERY smart and although he's stubborn he doesn't seem to be more stubborn than any other breed. I figure if I refuse to buy into the "pugs are untrainable" mindset (or the "pugs are harder to train" mindset), I'll do better. You have to believe it's possible, otherwise it IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Housebreaking. I don't know. Not much new. I reduced the area of his night crate. He cries more so I don't think he likes that. But for the most part he's been holding his bathroom movements until I take him out. Although.... today his towel felt dry but he STUNK to high heaven, the same way he did when he used to pee in his crate and then sleep in it. So... maybe he peed and it dried. I doubt it, but maybe. I'm changing his towels tonight, so we'll see.

He only pees inside if I take too long to let him out. Although, maybe I'm a liar. He peed today when I took a nap and there was no excuse. He pees on the bed and the couch if I'm not paying attention. Ugh. I hate it. I wish I could trust him to sleep in the bed w/ us or at least run around the house unattended, even a little while at a time. But I can't. Not just yet.

His cold seems to be almost gone. But his eyes water alot. His eyes water when he plays w/ his toys in the house, and when he comes back from long (by his standards) walks (around the block). The fur under his eyes is real wet. He has a vet follow up on Thursday, so I'll ask the vet about that then.

So tired, goodnight! I'll have to wait for the morning news for the election results. I'm way too tired to stay up, especially when he wakes my *ss up at 7:30am every day.