November 18 2014
After a cuddle last night, I put Milton in his crate and we went sleepies (around 9:30).
This morning I came upstairs at around 6:00 a.m. as I usually do on a work day. I opened the crate door, and usually Milton comes out, stretches, and we hang out on a the sofa for a few minutes waking up. This morning he didn't want to budge. Was he tired? Cold and not wanting to leave his warm crate? I finally got him up by fixing coffee and then fixing breakfast, but I had to coax him to eat. 
Usually he wants to go walkies right after he eats, but he wanted to go back to his crate! Really, I didn't blame him. Nice warm crate, or walkies in the single digit breeze? It takes forever for me to get it together for a walk in this weather: coat, earmuffs, scarf, gloves, coat for Milton put on just right over his leash and harness, poop bag, kleenex, treats, clicker, flashlight... lordy, I want to move back to someplace warm!! Milton gets impatient while I go through this rigmarole and I always worry he'll poop right there by the door. He never has, but I had one doggie that would have done that. Anyway, we didn't encounter anyone else on the walk (they obviously have more sense than I do), Milton did his business, we came back in, and he went directly to his crate.
So I don't know how worried to be about this behavior. Maybe it's the cold, Prozac, both? I keep the house at 66 degrees in the winter. I hate it, but can't afford to raise the temperature and might even have to lower it further. All I want to do is cry these days!
While I was back in the bathroom getting ready, I heard one loud bark, but I don't know what caused it. My guess would be one of the bad neighbors starting one of their huge vehicles, or their poor doggie that was out in the freezing cold. I feel so sorry for the poor thing - he has a shock collar, and I'm not sure if they keep him outside 24/7, but they do make him stay outside quite a lot, and he just barks.
Anyway, one loud bark at a stimulus is an improvement. When I first got him, or even as little as a couple weeks ago, he probably would have been a lot more excited and run to the sliding glass door, still barking. 
Such a nice warm greeting when I got home from work. He reaches his little arms up and just stands against me and I bend over and hug him and scratch his back and rub his ears... he can stand that way for a long time.
It's now after dinner and we just got back from a relatively long walk, and he didn't poop, even after coming back and walking him around the backyard - a LOT - and saying "Poop! Go poop!" Finally I gave up when I hit the point of frustration. So all I can do is, once again, stick him in his crate all night. At this rate, he's only outside the crate for a couple hours a day. That can't be good for him. I'm crying, I'm so frustrated. I'm a horrible puppy mom.