Our evenings have turned more chaotic now that super-puppy has turned into a canine juvenile delinquent. What used to be the arsenic hours of 4-6 p.m. has now morphed into a (sometimes) 4 hour "Poop Watch."
Dogs are pretty regular in their toileting habits. Bear certainly is. I can count on a deposit being made first thing in the morning, again around noon, and then another at suppertime. He eats at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and never in-between, which helps with the regularity.
The morning deposit is pretty easy. Outside, go, walk, inside to eat. But it gets trickier as the sun comes up and the birds and squirrels warm up and start moving around. Neighbor Mary starts stirring around in her garden, her cats are out milling around. And those distractions are just a bit much sometimes. He forgets what he's out there for. And so sometimes at lunch I find myself wandering circles in the yard for 20-40 minutes watching his hind end for any sign of the tell-tale arching. Sometimes I just gut it out, stalking around on the end of the leash, thinking about lunch. Other times I bring him in and put him in his kennel for a while as I go about my own stuff. The other day I did this for something like 4 cycles. In the kennel, do something, out of the kennel for a "try," back in the kennel. Over and over.
But the evenings? The entire family is on high alert watching Bear's every move. Announcements of "I'm going upstairs, you're it!" or "Hey! He's at the door! Somebody!" Each time he goes out and comes back in, the poop watcher is asked by the other 3 family members "How did it go? Anything?" Because then we can all breathe a sigh of relief that, once he makes that evening drop, we will have several hours of relative safety.
1 comment:
I SO want to find a way to work in a reference to this today and see Mensa Boy's face ... I'm gone for 2+ weeks, but this would make me laugh until I return.
Post a Comment