So the last time I wrote I posted about how great it was that Chopper felt safe in the basement. Well I have good news and bad news. Good news: he still feels safe in the basement. Bad news: he never wants to leave it. This can pose problems when we need to say, get him to where he's gated during the day so we can go to work, or get him outside to relieve himself, or feed him. In an effort to not man handle him I've learned he can be coaxed with high value food. Roast beef is a favorite, as is smelly goat cheese. The first time I had to use roast beef to get him upstairs he insisted on it in the future. Kept peaking around the corner up the stairs licking his lips and trying to play coy. I was onto that smart boy though, his eyes were clear and he was in a good psychic space. So I turned off the lights and walked away and a few minutes later he gave him. However, there are many more times when the prospect of leaving a safe place sets him into Chop-town. He'll curl into a ball and shake and the lights go off in his eyes.
He does this more and more in our bedroom now, too. I have a very short window when I wake up to get him off his dog bed or I lose him. My mornings start off like this, alarm goes off, I look at Chopper. If he is still sleeping I am safe, if he starts to move I have to hold my own bladder and get him downstairs immediately or he gives up right away and goes to Chop-town. If he is still sleeping I can get up, use the bathroom, brush my teeth and wash my face. Then when I come back he usually turns his sleepy head towards me. At this point it is intervention time. He is considering whether or not to psychically go or stay. I say "good morning Chopper, good morning good boy" in a sweet voice. I go over to him, scratch his ears, and rub his chin. Then I say, let's go downstairs and 99% of the time he gets up with me.
The other thing we are dealing with now is his new fear of going outside to the backyard. I should actually say resurrected fear because he started off that way, but it went away after a few weeks. Sure we'd have some slips where he'd go outside but want to come back in right away. Or there would be neighbor's kids playing out back and he'd go into Chop-town and sleep off his fear (seriously, he sleeps off his fear, I call it "rebooting"). But mostly he was ok. Well now there is no way to get him to go out back. Why is that a problem? Well, we have for the past 11 years that we've lived in this house with dogs arranged our lives around the fact our dogs relieve themselves in the backyard. Of course we'd take them for walks or to the dog parks for fun and exercise, but the act of emptying one's bladder and bowels takes place at a great convenience. Until now.
Now the only way to get Chopper to do so is to take him for walks. Trying to rearrange our lives to fit in walks is a whole new occurrence. I've been working on trying to fit in meditation in the morning, but now it's dog walking. Catching up on email at home, nope, dog walking. Putting out my clothes and packing lunch for the next day, better get that walk in first. He loves the walks for the most part; he gives me the "let's run" head twirl and I dare any of you to defy a sweet faced hound dog who does that. When I can get Greg to come with me Kolohe comes too, and that's when Chops is happiest. His tail goes up and his smile shows up. I don't mind the walks themselves, but it is one more thing to try to fit into my day that I wasn't prepared for.
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