Number one on a long list
There are a lot of things that dogs should learn from their owners in order to be competent, well-adjusted members of the family. Of course they should have the basic obedience skills - sit, lay down, stay, shake, what-have-you. I don’t think it’s necessary that a dog have an complete arsenal of silly pet tricks - but being able to sit when greeting a stranger, not jumping all over new people and generally being calm and rational is certainly important. Beau knows how to “settle” when he is being crazy - mostly because I just ignore him until he calms down - and he knows that in order to meet new people, he should sit and be patient. He can “wait”, he can “ok”, he can even high-five and sniper crawl.
But the most important thing he has learned, Number One of my list, the trick that I would choose for him to know over all others - is to potty on command.
I am not kidding. I tell Beau to use the facilities outside and he pops a squat shortly thereafter. A lot of it is based on habit - always before breakfast, always before bed, always as soon as I get home we go out and potty. And then he gets a cookie. But it’s useful when I need him to relieve himself and the situation is a little more complicated.
The new house is a scary place. I spent several hours out there this afternoon studying for my large animal anatomy final (because it is the only quiet place I can go since even ear plugs don’t work anymore) and he was glued to my side like velcro. It’s not quite ours yet, but it will be next week, so I figure it’s okay for us to be out there, if only as a refuge for the next couple of days while finals are going on. It’s big in there, and it echoes, and there’s no furniture, and there are chirping birds and grasshoppers (on the inside!) and cars drive by slowly and when the workmen are there the music is loud. For Beau, this is practically nuclear meltdown with his anxiety issue. He slept by my side with one eye open and pointed in the direction of the front door.
I say this because I didn’t leave the house until after dark, and since it had been a while since Beau had been outside, I thought it might be a good idea to see how he reacts to the backyard. It was quiet outside, cool and breezy - just the mockingbirds chirping softly in the tree in the backyard. He hunkered down, skulking around the backyard, wanting to go in so badly. But I repeated the command every couple of minutes, when I saw he was listening and calmed down.
And it worked.
He was scared out of his mind, wanted to die right there in the yard and be buried under the oak I am sure - but he followed through after just a few prompts.
I was worried that in this new place I’d have to walk him to get him to relieve himself like we did for the first month or so living where we are now. But it worked. Being habitual and consistent really truly worked (which is one of the main reasons I think keeping a good habitual schedule is essential to dog ownership). We are going to make it. We will move next week, spend the first night in sleeping bags on the master bedroom floor, and Beau will use the yard like a good boy.
There is hope yet for my moose.
musings, obsession with dog | Comment (0)Also known as
“This is my ‘Oh-crap-I-have-four-finals-in-the-next-four-days-and-I-can’t-focus face!”
gotta keep focusing, gotta keep focusing… almost a 2VM, almost a 2VM…
blah blah blah, vet school | Comment (1)I’m sorry, you will have to take that elsewhere.
I love animals. It’s a given, seeing that I am in vet school (which is why saying in your interview you want to be a vet is because you love animals and want to play with puppies all day is not a good idea - we ALL wan to do that), but I have to admit I am a bit of an animal elitist. Some of my classmates like horses and some like cows, and I am infatuated with dogs. But definitely, no matter what, I will never ever treat anything with more than fours legs (and probably not less). And because there are a few people out there who like to get into semantics - I will never ever, not in a million years, treat anything that was originally intended to have more than four legs. Snakes? Fine. Birds? Fine. Insects? Hell no.
I bring this up because I spent a valuable hour of my time this morning at an urgent care clinic being treat for (yet another) infected bug bite. I hate insects so much - and according to the RN that saw me, I was bitten by a Brown Recluse. Which is thoroughly exciting to say the least. My leg is very painful, very swollen and I’ve got classic lymphadenitis. I’m running a course of doxycycline and prednisone at the moment so that I don’t get necrotic. Awesome.
I have things with more than four legs, I really, really, truly do.
blah blah blah | Comments (2)