A Sideline View: Rain brings out the worst in new pups

Pip and Spud make snow.

We were feeling rather pleased with ourselves on the first night of Puppy School.

Other proud puppy people were asking when their little bundles would stay asleep all night in their crates and stop peeing inside. My daughter and I, a pup on each lap, glanced at one another with slightly smug looks.

Staying in their crates? Well ours, of course, had been staying asleep all night since we'd got them home. And peeing inside? Well just the odd wet patch here and there, but certainly nothing to write home about. And as for number twos, heavens above, they'd almost stopped doing that as well. Oh yes, we definitely had the best little puppies in the Bay. That is, until the rain started.

The drought-breaking downpour, although a welcome sight for many, was not so well received by those of us with new puppies at home.

They spend an awful lot more time indoors, and with that comes wees and poos. What we'd taken as clever little pups, was now obviously just a fluke. They'd been doing their business outside because that's where they'd been spending most of their time.

It turns out, if the weather is rather inclement and you have pups, you must find suitable wet weather accessories and get out there amongst it, encouraging wet grass shy pups to follow suit.

So with umbrella in one hand and pee/poo enticing treats in the other, off we went out into the grey wet day. Well off I went.

We had been told by the lovely Sarah at Puppy School that our doggies didn't do English. But that didn't stop me hollering their names in a high pitched squeal, waving hands and shaking bikkies when they didn't follow me out into the storm, but stood steadfast on the back deck, heads cocked in a questioning fashion, as if to say, "What is that stupid woman doing out there in the rain?", before squatting innocently on the recently changed bedding.

Speaking of bedding, the back deck started to look like it'd been snowing, with cushion stuffing strewn for miles. Luckily I've picked up a few gems from Puppy School to stow away in my bag of tricks so tried out a few, using hand signals to get these little rascals to sit and wait and even lie down — that one's still a work in progress — before allowing them to chow down on whatever 'treat' I had to reward them for not chewing any more cushions.

With all this 'snow' and rain, we also had the wind and along with the wind came the leaves — or so we thought.

When I walked outside to hang out the washing, stomping through piles of sodden leaves, I felt something of a squish between my toes. Not a wet leaf type squish either. Looking down, I noticed a few of the leaves weren't leaves after all.

Limping to the closest tap with one heel partially down, toes pointing skyward, other foot leaning on its side, I managed to find the required equipment to scrape away the smelly stool and decided to take a few deep breaths before rewarding myself with a little treat of my own.