Friday, January 13, 2012

Dog Tired

No, the dog is not tired.  I am.  I am exhausted.  Having a puppy is physically demanding, and this is only the third day we've had Walter.  I pop up out of bed and roll straight toward the dog's crate, snap on his leash, and bring him outside so he can pee.  I don't even care that I'm in my robe and my hair is unbrushed.  The goal here is to get outside before Walter pees on the floor.  He peed three times on the kitchen floor yesterday.

Once he pees on the lawn, we go back inside and I get him his cup and a half of Science Diet for puppies.  Then I have half an hour, or so I've been told, before I need to take him outside so he can poop.  That gives me time to get dressed,  drink a cup of coffee, and eat my cereal.  My husband tells me to let Walter go outside in the backyard so we don't have to worry about his having an accident on the floor again.  OK - that will buy me some more time.  I'm catching up on e-mail when we hear a knock on the door.  It's early in the morning, so a knock on the door cannot be good news.  It's our neighbors telling us that Walter is running around in the front yard.  My husband calls Walter's name, and Walter races in through the front door.  He dug a hole under the gate!  And we thought we had made the backyard secure.  Oy vey!  Walter is a digger.  My husband puts bricks in the hole to block the space.  No more unsupervised backyard time.

Then we're out the door again for our serious walk.  Inevitably, I forget to stuff my pockets with the plastic grocery bags, because you can't just leave the poop on the ground.  Back in the house for the bags, and now we set off on our walk.  I'm trying to get him to heel so he doesn't think he's the lead dog.  There's a whole new psychology of the dog that I'm having to learn.  He's not supposed to be out the door first either.  And I'm not supposed to let him jump on me.  It's a lot for this old dog (me) to learn.

After I've worn us both out from the walk, then there's time to read the paper.  But he's not too tired, because he chews his leash in half.  He's already torn off a leg of one of his toys.  I caught him chewing on the curtains.  I think the corner of his bed has a hole in it. No, he's not tired enough yet.

Next comes the introduction of each cat to the dog.  The dog is on one side of the baby gate, and I sit with one cat at a time on the other side of the gate.  There is hissing and growling and whining, and claws are out.  I'm not expecting miracles any time soon.  It would just be nice for them to regard each other with the attitude of peaceful co-existence.

After that, I go to the Animal Hospital to give them Walter's microchip barcode, go to the library to check out Cesar Millan's books on dog training, go to the drugstore, bring a friend to the airport, come back from the airport, eat lunch, and take Walter out for another walk.  Oops, forgot the bags, go back inside, get two of them, stuff them in my pocket, say hello to more neighbors and introduce them to Walter, then down to serious walking.

We come back from the walk, and Walter knocks out on the Persian rug.  I think I tired him out.  He's dog tired now, too....

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