[smepperson]

Our four and a half month old is seeming more and more to push the boundaries to test alpha limits. We recently acquired some bitter apple spray for our rattan basket and the feet and legs of many chairs and tables as well as the rug (yes he tries to eat the short pile of our wool rugs) and when he tastes it he gets crazy, runs to his bed and barks and growls while he's rolling around. I noticed that he does this when he needs to pee or poo or is tired as well. He will run around like he's psychotic, try to bite and sits and growls and barks from under the dining room table. This afternoon he was barking at me while we were on the couch. It's like he's trying to tell me something and I'm just not getting it.

We have not been able to walk him lately because he gets so cold so quickly. He is pad trained somewhat but I'm fairly sure he prefers to go out. I can tell he is letting me know when he needs to it's just that we were trying to keep the 2 activities separate and we've found he just does better with the walk. The yard thing - always in the same place - every couple of hours is just not his bag at all.

Also this evening we had him in his playpen while we were having dinner and basically he had a temper tantrum. Thrashing his bed around, biting the carpet, growling, barking, trying to bite me (not hard) when I took him out. I did get him out, held him a couple minutes, let him calm a bit and put him back. After he settled completely (lay down in his bed quietly a few minutes) I took him out for good.

I need to add that he has taken fairly quickly to early training. He knows 'drop it', wait, no or ah ah ah, and will wait a very short bit for me to throw his toy - say go - and then get the toy. Mind you this is under 5 seconds for now but I'm thinking maybe he is bored because he is so smart. We really want to do puppy classes but that is not in the budget this week - just paid for college classes. They do have doggy day care and I am considering that but what can we do as parents? Could this behavior be because he is not used to being an only child? My baby Gizmo was super smart as well and did very well having the run of the house almost right away but with Teddi's chewing (teething I'm sure),

Hubby and I just decided to enroll in doggy day care tomorrow. There is a great one that our Gizzy went to years ago and is still going strong. We are hoping this helps but do not want to break our bond of only a few weeks. He gets a little poopy attitude when he goes somewhere new.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!