Serious Question...how do you discipline a dog?

Joe and I are having some great sneak peaks at parenting by having dogs. Coby has been a little jealous of Otto and all the attention he is getting...so last week he acted out a little...by destroying the comforter on our bed:

I was at work when this happened, so Joe is the one who discovered this and he was not calm in his reaction. I only know what he told be but apparently he yelled at Coby a lot, the dog got scared and ran away from him (falling down half the stairs when he fled) and then Joe tied him up outside to think about what he had done. I thought, oh our poor baby is feeling jealous and he is acting out to get attention. I will give him some attention and then hopefully he won't act out....I took him to Petco when I got home and we got treats and a new toy.  He hasn't acted out since but we're not sure who's strategy worked...

Also, Otto has not been an angel lately either. He discovered his voice and at times the constant yapping is very trying on my patience no matter how cute he is.  I have accepted the fact that we need to take him to an obedience class. (I feel the need to note here that before we had dogs I totally judged my friends dogs and I was like "OMG their dog is NOT well trained...they need to do something about that." And even when we got Coby he was already trained and a perfect angel--minus his furious and uncontrollable humping of other dogs-- but now that I have a puppy that we have to train from the ground up...I am sorry for judging!)  It is SO HARD to discipline that adorable little face. One day Otto bit my nipple...hard bite...no bra...and it was sooo painful and grabbed him and slammed him down on his back and yelled at him. But then he gave me little puppy eyes like "Mom why are you mad I thought we were playing" and I felt awful and cuddled him for like 10 minutes. He's also in the habit of making a huge mess of his water bowl and still hasn't quite mastered going to the bathroom outside:

As you can see, I cannot discipline him and he can do no wrong.  This is not boding well for parenthood...though I think it makes a big difference with humans that speak but still I can't imagine myself yelling at a three year old. So we are taking Otto to obedience classes soon (haven't actually signed up yet but found a reasonably priced class right at Petco) and I hope it works!  I am great with positive reinforcement (You peed outside! Here's a treat!) but I don't know how to stop his bad behaviors like barking and dumping out his water bowl on the floor and chewing the couch.  Any suggestions for us in the meantime?  

We Surprised Ourselves with a Dog!

We had no intention of getting a dog this past Sunday, but somehow we did! Saturday we were at our pirate themed birthday party having a great time, when we got a message that there was a puppy in need of a home so at 11pm after a few cocktails I said "OF COURSE WE WANT THAT PUPPY!" Joe and I had a sober conversation about it the next morning and decided to stick by our decision. I have been wanting a second dog for a looong time and this just seemed perfect!  So at 1pm on Sunday we picked up a little boy miniature poodle!

Now since this was spontaneous, we didn't have a name ready.  My suggestion was Snowball but Joe thought that was a girl name, he wanted Gus but I thought that was a name for a big dog. We literally googled "cool dog names" and Joe read the list to me in the car as we drove to pick up the pup.  We both liked Ace, Brady was a contender but it seemed too cliche for Patriots fans, he kept reading down the list and when he got to Otto we both said, in unison, "Otto, I like that." Boom, the dog is named Otto. 

When we picked him up he was much smaller than expected, we picked him up from our friend who had already gotten him from the breeder.  He was supposedly 8 weeks but weighs no more than 3 lbs and we found out upon pick-up that he can't even eat solid foods he must be bottle fed...puppy formula! Didn't even know there was such a thing.  We had gone to the store in the morning to get puppy pads, a collar (which he might grow into in about a month)  and puppy food, but we had to go back to get the formula and a bottle...and a tag now that he had a a name!  

After doing a little research we found out that the fact that he has no teeth (literally nothing just gums) means he's really only about 3 weeks old...too young to be away from his mom but here we are! We're taking him to the vet tomorrow to get him checked up an de-wormed but he's too young to even get his shots so we'll have to go back again next month for that.  But so far he has been a very good dog: very quiet, sleeps a lot, takes his bottle most of the time AND HE IS ADORABLE. 

Coby...thinks Otto is an alien. 

Definitely a little confusion and jealousy from Coby but it's only been 1 day.  He slept downstairs on the couch like always but Otto slept in a laundry basket in our room. At 1am Otto was wimpering pretty bad and I figured he was hungry so I took him in the other room to give him a bottle (serious parenting practice here ladies and gents) and Coby was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, and had his head cocked looking up at me like, "What is this creature that is getting all your attention, Mom?" Otto is really curious about Coby but Coby runs away from Otto every time he gets close enough to touch him. 

Anyway, one day into puppy parenting and no complaints!  Sitting here on the couch surrounded by all my boys and loving every second of it :)