I have got to get Ryan on a better schedule

I have the eating/drinking = peeing/pooping thing all down with him. The shelter system off putting the food out to eat twice a day for 30-45 minutes and letting him eat if he is hungry and then making sure to get him out for the output a while after that is working just fine. What isn't working is that Ryan doesn't sleep the night. He gets up in the middle of the night and comes over to the bed and scratches at the sheets or jumps on the bed. I have putting him off the bed and praising him when he is off,but the scratching at the sheets won't take long to do a number on them. I am not sure if he is sleeping during the day or if I am just not getting him enough exercise. My foot has been bothering me a bit and he is not great on a leash (I need to pickup a gentle leader to try with him), so we haven't been going for a lot of long walks. I need to get that into the routine so that I can get my sleep.

Ryan has become more comfortable going outside on his own if there is something out there that interests him. He will bound off after a squirrel or bark and jump up at the tree to try to get at a squirrel. If I go out on the deck with him, he often jumps up on the deck bench seat with me for some petting or will go over the top railing to go after something. Now I need to add in some obedience work and get him out into public situations. The shyness hasn't gone away, he is just becoming comfortable with me.

I left him this morning to go drop Ben at school and was coming back. I spent a few more minutes at school than usual and when I parked in the driveway and was getting out of the car, I could hear him whining and howling in the house. Once we get some obedience going, we also have to work on the separation anxiety. The wonderful thing is that he isn't destructive while I am gone all day. I think he gets on the sofa and the other day the kitchen table was all swished around like he had walked across it, but he hasn't chewed anything. We have had a few mini blinds that he whacked in the back where the backyard is, but I think that was more him being excited and going after a squirrel bu tnot able to get out.