[mbroome]

Well we've had Tinkerbell for 8 days now and all I can say is 'Wow!". In my almost 50 years I've owned my fair share of dogs, but this little girl has some definite very unique spunk, personality, and stubbornness to her! She gets her feelings hurt VERY easily and will actually sulk and act mad at you, even at her young age! (born Dec 7). My first question....we are attempting to crate train her obviously. EVERY evening when we goto bed we love on her and put her in her "room". She is fine for a few hours but she will wake up, use her potty pad and get VERY upset and whine and cry. This past weekend my son got up, put a futon pillow down next to her crate, let her out and my wife and I woke up to them cuddled happily on the futon. When will her crying at night stop? All she wants is some love, cuddling and she goes back to sleep.

Next question. She is going pee on her pad just fine. She picked up on that fast enough. Going poo however is an entirely different story. She REFUSES to use her pad. So far she is refusing to leave an area about 8 feet around her crate, ( I guess the world is a big place to her!). She will go and hide under the coffee table and go. I have corrected her by saying "No!" and put her on her pad and she acts like i just destroyed her little feelings. Yesterday my wife called me at work and said she did the same and Tinkerbell went and sulked in her crate and I guess tried to hold it in and made a huge mess in her hair, then promptly growled at my wife when she got a bath, ( her 2nd bath now). Any suggestions on this problem? I got some of the training spray for the store and when she goes, I correct her, place her on the pad and use a kleenex to place her oopsie on the pad so she might get the hint. What else can I do?

Next question. The "Superpuppy" thing. We have a VERY low recliner and my wife called me yesterday laughing, in tears. Tinkerbell will take off at a dead run and jump up into the chair, sit there looking all proud, "Mommy, look at me!". She will play, nap, do the puppy think then take a flying leap off of the recliner onto the floor. The chair is low enough that she will not get hurt, but I don't want to encourage this behavior so it carries over to something where she WILL get hurt. What is the best way to discourage this without hurting her little feelings? She actually looks SO proud and happy with herself when she does it.

Lastly, I went ahead and registered her with the CKC and will be receiving her papers along with a microchip for the vet to put in on the 11th when she goes in for her next round of shots. What is the difference between the akc and the ckc? Was the money spent registering her worth it considering I am NOT going to breed her? Thanks SO much for any help and advice! My wife and I are having a blast and she has really stolen our hearts!