More Ways my Dog is Like a Toddler

Kane waiting while I make dinner. Patiently.

In a previous post, I listed ten ways my dog is like a toddler, and three that he is not. Since then, I've thought of a few more.

1. He needs to be wherever I am. I don't have a picture of it, but he has followed me into the bathroom. Our powder room is very small so I had to shove him back out immediately, but he sat outside the door and waited. And whined.

2. He loves playgroup. The trainer who developed the Walk in the Pack group also sometimes throws in a doggy playgroup where dogs (and their humans) who need a little extra practice on their social skills get together. This last weekend, we gathered at a local dog daycare centre and got to know each other.

There was a goodly amount of butt-sniffing. Most of these dogs were a little nervous about this at first, but they gradually calmed down.

Kane met one dog who seemed to like him, but then he tried to mount her and that put finis to that. He got the equivalent of a slap across the face, as he ought. It upset some of the other dogs, unfortunately, so I had to remove him to another room.

3. He doesn't like having his nails trimmed. I'm sure he would feel the same way about having his teeth brushed, but I haven't tried.

This, he says, was not part of the deal.

4. He gets impatient in the car. He's usually pretty good, but a few times, he's whined excessively once I close the door. Admittedly, both times I had to leave him in the car a few minutes because I had to go back into the house to get something.

5. He requires strict boundaries. As well as not being allowed on the furniture, he is not allowed to go upstairs (which is the cat's domain) or down to the basement (because it is not puppy-proofed). So we have these.

It adds a certain je ne sais quoi to our entry, don't you think?

Because we knew these would be temporary, we just used scrap wood that we had on hand. They work. Of course, Kane could hop over either of these in a blink of an eye, but he doesn't because he is a very good boy.

6. He needs special food, and that takes up room. Because he's a Very Big Dog, his food comes in gigantic bags. And because he could (and likely would) shred those bags when we weren't looking, they go into bins.

Only the steel can is actually for garbage. The bin and white can are for Kane's food. Attractive, no? I need to find a better way/place to store this.

7. He wants to be where the action is. If he sees something happening outside our windows, he NEEDS TO GO THERE! Right now! This is not so bad when he's looking into the back yard, but when he gets a glimpse out our front window, which faces the park and is thus a steady stream of dogs, people, and children, he raises a ruckus to get our attention: "Look! A stroller." or "There's a dog! Look, a dog! Let's go play!"

No amount of chastisement stops these hissy-fits, so then we have to drag him to his crate, which makes him unhappy. So we've done this.

I've covered the lower half of the window with a bit of wrapping paper. Problem solved.

That's it for this week. I'm sure I'll think of more . . .