Learning house manners

I've been concentrating on house manners with Madeline this week. She's been getting a little wild with the other dogs, jumping on their backs, biting legs and playing alligator mouth. I don't want her to learn to be dog distracted, so I've been separating the pets from Madeline. I've been blocking off the open kitchen-family room area from the living room with a baby gate and I've been letting Madeline be on the kitchen/family room side with us. We have stacked two beds together by the tie-down and Madeline really likes this.



Last night I started watching the HBO series The Wire and I sat on the floor with my back against the couch, and pulled her bed beside me. Madeline didn't need any prompting and was content to stay with me during the 2 hours or so that I was watching. The nice thing about the stacked bed is that I can lie on it, too. Now I can snuggle with Madeline.

Madeline is also free to roam around the room and she will choose other places to lie down, like by the French doors that lead to outside. She also chews on toys or chases empty orange juice containers. At any rate, less time on tie-down is making us all happy. I'm just hoping she can learn to be calm in a room with the other dogs soon, but we're taking it a step at a time.