For the past week, Cassie has not wanted to use the bathroom outside. She will still play out there, still lay out there when it's not so wet (we've had some rainy days), but will only occasionally do her business outside unless it is on a walk, which is also becoming difficult. She has completely regressed from her leash training, and is pulling more than ever. She is getting into the garbage more, and getting into things we didn't even think a dog would go after, like ornamental pinecones in a basket, that we have always have on a high table.

She is overly-hyper in her house, and I'm now taking her for 2 walks a day, once in the morning and once at night, to get her energy out. This is challenging for me, since she pulls way too much and so I have to stop every second until she stops- which kind of defeats the purpose of the walk, yes? She isn't getting enough energy out, and I can't jog as I am borderline asthmatic. And her reaction to other dogs outside is still pretty scary, so once a day I take her to a field where I walk her on-lead, no distractions and good for training. She listens more there, but is still being overly stubborn all of the sudden.

Besides that, her drool is suddenly not her puppy-drool anymore, but full-on doggy-slobber. This may be doggy adolescence full-blown, although I thought half of you were kidding when I read about it for the first time on here.

The reason for all of this COULD be me going back to college. She has never had such bad seperation anxiety, and was fine last year. Then again, I am the only one who will train her (my mom can't control her on a leash, and only could when we first got her), and I feed her and take her out. Plus we had just gotten her last year.

She does all of this even when my mom is home- and my mom works from home on a computer, and can't give her the attention she needs when I'm not home.

I'm going to search out Petco for a Kong and some other stimulative toys, to keep her busy when I'm not there with her. Does anyone have recommendations? I'm not letting this go, I want to be a good dog owner, so I'll be just as stubborn, patient and try to understand her doggy-talk as much as I can.

EDIT: My mother can't take over one of the feeding duties either. I had to take over that, because she was actively overfeeding both the dogs, since she is used to overly-spoiling her dogs. I told her to stop, and learned she did it behind my back from my brother. I think I am going to, however, have him feed her sometimes, to share the
authority.

For those of you who don't know her, Cass was guessed to be about 3 right now from the vet, and she is a boxer mix.

I am also having a yard sale soon, and as with all of the money I get, it's going towards her training- which might be a behavior trainer if we can't figure out what she needs.