Dogs Rule ???

Thoughts While Enjoying A 2nd Cup of Coffee

March 2nd, 2016

“Dogs Rule???”

There’s an old saying among dog owners, that first a dog steals your heart, and then they steal your bed. Well, not in my house (sic).

We have two wonderful dogs. Niamh (pronounced neeve), is an adopted, standard poodle who is about 13 years old, and came to us in 2009. She was very frightened, and very shy. She’s gotten over some of that, but her original fear tells her to sleep each night inside the safety of her dog cage. Nothing can harm her there. No threat of stealing my bed, either.

Owen is our other dog. He is a PBGV – Petite Bassett Grand Vendeen – a small, French hunting dog, and we adopted him from Louisiana a little over a year ago. He is much younger than Niamh, and with his arrival, she has gotten younger. The two of them LOVE to play, and horse around together.

Beth is absolutely Owen’s person. Whatever room she is in, Owen is in. He follows her everywhere, and until a few months ago, they both went on a 2-mile walk every day. When it comes to sleeping, however, he either plops down on my bed, or on the living room sofa.

When Owen chooses my bed for the night, he knows where to sleep. I have my favorite pillow – a wedge pillow – that I LOVE, and then a regular pillow beside it. I covet the wedge, and Owen either snuggles up to me, or the regular pillow. We know our places.

In December, after his 1-year checkup at the vet, we learned he was heart worm positive. It’s fatal for dogs, but it can be cured. The recovery process, however, takes 4 months, and involves a lot of pills, taken on differing days, and several shots of what I call, “doggie chemo”. He’s now in his final month of treatment, and doing well. It also means a regimen of greatly reduced activity. No more 2-mile walks each day, nor frolicking wildly in the new fallen snow.  His biggest disappointment, however, came when we had to stop all the horse-play that he and Niamh enjoy.   

Keeping the doggie-play down is no problem during the day, but at night, Niamh and Owen often have a midnight romp in the living room, while we sleep. Once, in the middle of the night, when I got up to do what older men do in the middle of the night, I heard noise coming from the living room. When I flicked on the light, there they were – frozen in mid-romp, and looking like petulant teens. They had that “busted” look in their eyes. They looked at me for a few seconds, and then Niamh slinked away to her cage, and Owen slowly snuck by me, and hopped up onto the bed.

So, how do we stop the night time frolics? Well, I’ll put Owen onto my bed and shut the bedroom door. Total control. Problem solved. This worked for a few nights. Owen respected my side of the bed, and we got along fine. Then, for who knows why, he plopped himself down on MY side of the bed when it was nighty-night time.

Not a problem. I boldly told him, “Sorry Owen, I’m the pack leader, and the pack leader rules.” I picked him up (he only weighs 45 pounds) and carried him over to his side of the bed. This worked for a few nights, and one night he hopped onto the bed, and took HIS side of the bed. SUCCESS! Mentally, I gloated. What a good pack leader I am.

That night, however, when I got up for my usual middle-of-the-night chore, when I returned, I found him nestled onto MY side of the bed. I mumbled something and went to pick him up and carry him to the other side of the bed. UGH! The combination of my sleepiness, and general desire to get back to sleep quickly, made it impossible for me to lift him. I tried a few times – no luck, and in frustration, I moved to the other side of the bed for the rest of the night.

This pattern repeated itself for several more nights.

Finally, on the morning after the 4^th day of this “midnight maneuver” strategy of Owen’s, I was making the bed and decided, what the heck. He’s suffering through shots, and pills, and other stuff related to curing his heart worm, and I swapped pillows. I switched sides. I moved my favored wedge pillow to the other side of the bed.

Owen, knew EXACTLY what this meant, He hopped onto the bed and faced me with a look on his face that said, “So, I’m the new pack leader?”

“Yes”, I told him, “when it comes to sleeping at night, and stealing my side of the bed, you’re the new pack leader.” He wagged his tail in victory.

Dogs rule!