Friday, January 24, 2020

Equilibrium with the Dog


With this upgrade in sleeping arrangements, the dog seems to have finally gotten over her anxiety issues. She doesn't like it when we leave her alone in the day, but she has learnt to deal with it. She's still secured behind a safety gate, but she gets access to the study. She is allowed up on the couch there. Keeping a room open to her soothes her.

The dog's very velcro to me. She follows me around. She'll sleep in her own bed at night, but she will move about, and she prefers to sleep on the mat at my side of the bed. I'm not sure how she's going to react when I travel. I haven't fixed any plans because I'm not sure the man can handle it just yet. If I travel, there'll be plenty of logistical challenges, and boarding the dog for a few days would be a wiser choice than to have the man look after her for a week straight.

She understands her commands perfectly, and will largely follow them. She's doing much better on recall off-leash but that only happens in a fenced off area. She knows how to come ask me for food if she's hungry outside meal-times, and if she needs to poop or pee urgently outside of her regular walks. She's most interested in cheese, and she even perks up when we eat plain bread and butter. She knows that she gets to go to playschool, and still get fun outings with us. Lucky little shit.

The grandpawrents have also realized how draconian I am about Choya's continuous training, composition of food in her diet, treats (or the lack thereof), adherence to pee times, walks and such. They're totally respecting that. Obviously. I just need them not to frivolously feed her humans food or whatever they think dogs eat, or other dogs eat. I'm sooo glad that we chose not to have human progeny. Imagine the epic battles that we would have. LOL

This week, Choya is two years and three months old. We seemed to have reached equilibrium in peacefully living together. The man indulges her more than I do. We work hard to keep her patella luxation controlled in a bid to avoid future surgery. Likewise for her food. I'm not very fond of supplements or those essential oils (CBD oil is a different story). I don't it for myself, and I'm not open to trying it for the dog either. We keep to a balanced diet; I delve deep into dog nutrition to truly understand what it takes to keep most dogs happy, and adapt it to a dog of her breed, her digestive system and her needs. We hope to have ten good years with her.

2 comments:

coboypb said...

"very velcro" and the photo of both of you are so sweet :)

imp said...

SO VELCRO LOR. *facepalm She's especially velcro this week. DUNNO WHY.