Very Bad Things

Owning dogs is a real treat. Often things happen that one day will be a funny anecdote but in the moment you‘re mostly restraining yourself from committing dog homicide. I actually have an upcoming post that covers part of the problem here but this was just too good not to share. Want a Ridgeback? Really badly? Are you sure? Okay … read on …

The dogs are separated during the day but are in the same room. Leeloo is in her ex-pen and Raimi is loose in the dog room but blocked from getting out by another ex-pen. The door to the room is open to facilitate the expen set up – it’s complicated to explain but let’s just say the door to the room stays open.

Lately Leeloo and I have had a bit of a stand off over her inability to not pee or poop during the day so she is in her expen with newspaper. By this age Zero was able to hold it all day and be loose in the room with the adult dogs but Leeloo is of a different mind. In fact so different it has started to affect Raimi’s behaviour.

How?

Well, yesterday I came home and as I walked up to the house I heard a bark. A big bark. The kind of big bark a bog dog does when someone is approaching his house. The bark did not come from the room he was supposed to be contained in, it came from the kitchen. Sigh. So Raimi is out. All kinds of things ran through my head such as what he’d ruined, how he got out and how I was going to prevent this from happening again.

He was all joy when I walked in and I was immediately even more unhappy. I’m always happy to see The Boy but it was more the smell that set off my annoyance radar. It was coming from the dog room where Leeloo was barking off her fool head in excitement and irritation.

I fended off a very excited Boy and herded him outside, let the (shit covered) puppy outside and (almost) successfully prevented her from getting shit on me.

I took stock. Puppy pen smeared back to front and sideways with dried, caked-on puppy shit. Crate, blankets, toys, floor, wall and pen wire panels coated. Not diarrhea, not explosive, not abnormal in anyway … just … pooh. Thankfully I don’t think there was much, if any pee mixed in … the consistency was too thick. Yes … I really did just write that.

I then took stock of the property damage caused by Boy in his attempts to amuse himself.
* Large cardboard box(pizza size but not a pizza box) torn into a million pieces in the kitchen
* one winter boot in livingroom
* one winter boot in hallway
* my toy Tigger in livingroom (he has an obsession with Tigger)
* my teddy bear in livingroom – eye missing
* one sock in livingroom
* one sock in hallway
* couch moved
* bed comforter very rumpled and clearly slept on
* slipper in livingroom
* and more importantly – and entire dish of Christmas ju jubes … gone. Raimi luuuurvs sugar.

I also think he spent much of the day playing with the cats because the curtains were all askew and they looked tired. Fortunately he didn’t actually do damage except partially blind my teddy bear. In all I’m thankful it was a near miss and that my Christmas tree is on a table.

So how does this happen? Well, when I was cleaning out the puppy pen Raimi was hiding around the corner and when I called him he (I kid you not) peeked around, sniffed low, looked at the poopy pen with distressed eyes, and backed away. I’m quite sure that after the poop parade came through he decided being trapped in a room with Shit Stink Leeloo was not cool and he wanted OUT. He hopped on a crate next the pen (which has since been moved) and jumped over.

Leeloo doesn’t care if she’s covered in shit or pee. It is so un-Ridgeback-like of her I’m not sure what to do. As I said I have another post coming up devoted to that topic and I welcome suggestions how to combat it. It is literally like she is an 8 week old puppy who stomps through the waste and doesn’t notice. I am now treating her like an 8 week old and we will make slow progress toward crate and pen training … but it’s a weird thing to have to do.

Poor Raimi. He is so good … but he just HAD to get out of that room. Can’t say I blame him. It took hours for the smell to dissipate despite Mr Cleaning it twice and Lysol spray. So far this week my ‘welcome homes’ have all involved pee or shit in some capacity …