Recently we have had a few "puddles" on the rug in the mornings. I do not in any way hold the dogs accountable for this, it is purely a case of Pete and I getting lazy and not taking them out to pee before bed each night. We used to have a routine and they were very good about it. They are quick learners - ok, that's a bit of an overstatement - Rocky is a little slow on the uptake when it comes to most things! He still thinks that food means sit and I am not sure that he understands the word on its own. Whenever he is confused or thinks he is in trouble his solution is to sit - 9 out of 10 times that is what he is being asked to do, I just have the feeling he isn't connecting the 2 even after all this time.... anyhow, back to puddles; About the time they were appearing we were having a mosquito infestation in the back patio area. Yay. The first night I had to physically lift Patch out onto the grass and close the doors to the covered area so that she couldn't just slink back to her chair. This resulted in 2 confused greyhounds standing on the very narrow strip of paving and looking at me like I was stupid as I stood in the backyard saying "come on, go for a pee!" whilst at grave risk of malaria from the thousands of nasty bitey things all over my arms and legs. Hmmm. Lots of encouragement and a bit of gesturing and finally they got the idea - rewarded with lots of praise and cuddles and getting to go straight back inside.
Night 2 - caught a slinking Patch as she went for the chair, frogmarched the little drama queen - yelps and all - out and shut the doors again. Stood around getting bitten on the few patches of flesh that didn't get molested the previous night. Took slightly less time for them to do the required ablutions and back inside to apply the calamine lotion....
Night 3 - Patch pre-empted the gentle nudge to go beyond the safety of the pavers and ducked around the side to do her thing very promptly, with Rocky in tow. YAY, success.....
I'm glad we have one dog with smarts, if not for Patch I think we would still be standing in the yard from the first night and the fever from the malaria would be getting to me, leading me to see things that were perhaps not there and imagine that RockStar was speaking to me.
Ok, so it's not that drastic and even without the malarial fevers and whatnot I have on occasion been known to follow some strange thought paths.
Happy to report though that all is now well and we are in a routine to avoid future puddles.
Comments