You know how people say you should get a dog to prepare for having kids? I’ve always told people that having a puppy is way harder than a baby. A puppy in the house is like taking care of a two year old without a diaper. Unfortunately, I already have one of those. Thankfully, Micah seems a little more like a 4 year old. We still have to watch him closely, but he’s not a tornado of destruction and pee — so far. I’m still waiting for his true personality to unfold as he gets more and more comfortable being at our house.
The hardest part about having a dog this time is the toddler. We’ve never added a dog when we had little kids, they were always used to having one in the house from the day they came home from the hospital. But Camille seems to think that this new creature is here specifically for her enjoyment; finally someone who is lower than her on the totem pole. She has taken her new job as big sister very seriously and spends all day trying to get close to the dog, pet the dog, tell the dog what to do, and play with his toys. I spend all day saying, “Get away from the dog,” “Get out of the dog’s face,” “Give the poor dog some space,” and “Camille, enough!”
Good thing Micah has been a good sport about all of this so far. He is so sweet and a big baby. He is only 7 months and spent at least 4 of them at the shelter, maybe more. He’s good with people — very gentle, not mouthy, doesn’t jump up, lies down at our feet when we’re sitting around in the living room, but we can tell he doesn’t have much life experience. He’s scared of our stairs (won’t go up them), scared of the different tile in the kitchen (won’t go in there), scared of the bath (loud water sounds/splashing), pulls like crazy on the leash (we knew this from walking him at the shelter), and has no idea what to do with toys or treats.
The first day he wouldn’t eat or drink out of his food bowls, so I hand fed him some kibble. I tried to get him interested in some toys, but he only sniffed at them. I even slathered peanut butter inside the chew toy, but he turned away. What am I going to do with a dog that doesn’t live for food?!
Since then, I’ve figured out that he doesn’t like to eat when he’s stressed, not even treats. I throw good stuff in his crate when we go out and we come home to find them uneaten. Poor guy. But he’s finally figured out the magic of peanut butter and has been chewing away at the bone this afternoon while sitting at my feet. He’s still not a chow hound, but maybe that will change as he gets more comfortable. It’s hard finding things to entertain him since he does NOT want to go outside during the day, and he eyes the different toys with suspicion. He’s not crazy or running around the house (thank God!), so maybe he’s happy just lying on the floor?
He’s only had one accident in the house when the boys were not closely watching him. They took him out in the morning, but he didn’t go, so they brought him back inside (dog novices). I was still upstairs sleeping with Camille. He wants to hurry up and get out of the heat so he has to be “encouraged” to go. Today I sat on a rock outside in the yard and ignored him as he tried to pull toward the house and whimpered to go back in the A/C. I was dripping with sweat, but figured I could wait him out.
I was successful, but then he showed me by stepping in it and tracking it back in the house (the hose out front doesn’t work so I tried to open the front door to call for baby wipes and he wiggled right past me to get into the cold air). Good thing we have tile floors downstairs.
He’s made huge strides in the past 24 hours — he’s tiptoed into the kitchen a few times, has figured out that plush squeaky toys are fun to carry around in his mouth, and he’s been drinking out of his water bowl freely. We have been trying to give him a good walk at night since that’s his only chance for any real exercise. Last night we walked from our house to Costa Coffee which isn’t too far away, but it was so humid out we were all dripping by the time we arrived. Thankfully this photo is grainy or you’d be able to see all the beads of sweat on our faces. It wasn’t that hot — if you like walking through the steam room at the spa.
waiting outside while the other two boys get our drinks
Seriously sweaty.
