It's a big experiment today. For dog's first 2 weeks I moved my office downstairs to the dining table so she had easy access to the garden. It didn't appear to make any difference as she still pooped and wee'd in the house - always approximately 2 inches from various puppy pads, shower curtains and other protective equipment.
In fact I've discovered that having a puppy is just like when you first have a baby - everybody who has ever had a puppy suddenly believes they are the worlds biggest expert and gives you loads of advice. This advice is given with a lack of acceptance that it's not necessarily going to work with your dog. I remind myself that when I had a baby it took me 6 months to realise that unless the person talking to you has 6+ children they haven't got a clue what they are talking about. Let's face it - when any animal is a baby they develop so quickly that you are only an expert on the particular day or week you are dealing with.
Today I've moved dog up to my study. Whilst this sounds lofty and as if I have all the space in the world I'd like to clarify a few things. I was on furlough last year and husband working from home. We do have a fabulous study. It has 2 desks, pedestals a bank of computers and printers etc. In fact it's a little bit like mission control as we are a family of geeks.
However, husband and I can't work together - totally incompatible. He drums his fingers and I sing and / or sigh whilst I work. Also we're on Teams calls all day. So as he was already set up in study I created a study at the end of the spare bed in the spare room. This is also my dressing room - essentially prior to furlough I was up and out of the house every day before anybody else was awake. So my wardrobe is in spare room. The bed looks a bit like a 15 year olds bedroom because I change what I wear 20 times a day (not because I'm precious, but I spend my life either too hot or too cold).
There isn't a great amount of space at the end of the spare bed and as I know I have a proper study I've sort of cobbled together a working space on minimal budget. It does work, but let's just say I can't swing my chair back at speed or I'd end up shooting out of the window. It's a very compact study.
On the far side of the rather dodgy side table (repro) my parents offloaded on me on one visit - which I use as my only available space to write notes on - I have put the dog bed. It's already not going well as I can see her lying on my clothes which are strewn all over the bed..... hang on..........
Ok, back again - dog was moved from bed and as I don't want to have to watch her every second of day I've just covered my clothes with blankets - it's a solution - not a good one - obviously the ideal solution would be for me to tidy up the clothes, but I've always been one for setting realistic targets.
Parents came over yesterday - I was so excited to introduce them to dog. She immediately went shy and ignored them completely - until she saw mum's jewellery - at which point she paid her lots of attention - pretending to be loving whilst gently trying to remove the diamonds from her rings. Though may be I should encourage this behaviour - poo's will be much more pleasant to pick up if there's a chance there is a diamond in there!
Sister-in-law also popped over with nephew - to meet dog, but also to pick up parents. Parents are leaving car at mine for a day whilst they go and do groovy things with brother and sister-in-law. They have a house in Brighton - not where they live I hasten to add - just somewhere for weekends. How the other half live!!!
Final bit of dog news is that we are now able to take her for pavement walks. We took her down to the beach, though may leave that a bit before we do it again. She drank some seawater and let's just say that her loo habits were somewhat unpleasant for a couple of days. I think I'll wait until she's a bit more robust.
Our old dog used to chase waves and try to eat them - the results were always disastrous. It was a very badly behaved boy dog with one very strange habit. It didn't do a poo in the way most dogs do - it used to insist on getting it's bottom up in the air and tucked against something. I think in it's instinct it was about shuffling it's bum into bushes to do it's business. Don't get me wrong, this was a blinding instinct most of the time as it was very clean and tidy - but not always ideal.
I remember the first time I took it for a walk - we lived in Poet's Corner in Hove at the time - lots of lovely white walls outside peoples houses. Old dog started to do poo dance and then to my horror at the very last second shuffled it's bum around - stuck it up in the air and did a huge sloppy poo against somebodies wall. I was utterly lost for words without a clue what to do. I admit that I did the first thing that came to mind...... I ran! At least I was prepared the next time.
Back to to the disastrous results from the wave chasing / sea eating. It would give him a really dodgy stomach with explosive results. I remember one particularly humiliating event when on the walk home from the sea he suddenly did poo dance, turned - raised bum to poo and then shot huge streams of diarrhea across the pavement, for what felt like about 2 hours. People just stopped and stared at me like I was the scum of the earth - it was like they thought I'd been training my dog to do something THAT disgusting.
Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, not so keen to go through that again.
Going to be busy at work this week - about to start on my emails - always a nightmare after a week away.
Speak soon.
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