Meg Cline

I kind of felt like we were making good progress with the Budster – we had him up to about 4 hours in the crate, although I wouldn’t say it was by any means a HAPPY four hours. Unless panting, drooling and excessive barking are signs of a happy dog… last I checked…umm, NOPE. But, he wasn’t acting like a drunk toddler when we released him, so we figured that we were getting somewhere.

Then came Tuesday. Tuesday Matt had to be at orientation from 7:30-4:00 and I had to work from 5:30-2:00… so one way or the other, Bud was going to be flying solo from about 7:00-2:30. A leap from four hours to almost eight…. we thought, you know, if he can do four, he can TOTALLY do eight.

You know that rule about increasing your running mileage and how you should go up by 10% each week?

What is true for shin splits must also be true for anxious doggles. Holy Backslide, Cesar. So, Tuesday I got home from work at 2:30 and lo and behold, found a soggy, smelly, miserable dog in his crate. I scooped him up and into the bath he went – chalking it up to too long a day and a bladder that just wasn’t ready for that.

Over the next two days though, we realized it was his mind, not his bladder, that wasn’t quiiiiite ready for the long day in the little box. Wednesday he was only in for two hours, and I was totally dismayed to come home to find yesterday’s scenario repeated. Two hours! He can definitely keep his little legs crossed for two hours.

Thursday morning, we had just come in our from our walk when Matt arrived home from work. I was fixing my coffee, chatting with the new doctor fresh off his first overnight shift, when our sweet little adorable Sheltie looked up at both of us, and lifted his leg and treated our brand new fridge like his very own fire hydrant.

W.
T.
F.

Not sure if this is regression or if he’s pissed at us (pun intend), buuuut whatever the reason, it ain’t fun.

So we’re back to basics, and back to crating in increments of minutes. It’s frustrating, but I also recongize that it’s not his fault and he’s ours now and we have to figure out how to help him. We’ve started putting his food in his crate, hoping that YAY EATING will make the crate seem like a tiny bit of a happier place? He’ll now go in there to eat but as soon as that bowl is empty, he’s out of there in a flash. I’m sure he’ll get there, and I’m looking forward to the day I can write the blog entry that says simply: BUDDY! IN THE CRATE! NOT BARKING! and we’ll know we’ve helped him become a happier, well-adjusted pup.

In the meantime, it’s just one fun, bark-filled day at a time.