Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Pee Pads, Not Just for Peeing

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We’ve been having a problem with someone peeing in the house.

It started the week of Christmas. I was on vacation that week and our walking schedule was off. We walked later in the morning and earlier in the afternoons to take advantage of walking in daylight.

The morning walks were around 6:30, while the afternoon walks would start around 3:00 pm and finish around 4:00 pm, then dinner was at 7:00 pm. Delilah as you know, being pure Lab, gets super excited for food. In fact, she jumps like a jumping bean when I bring her her food.

At some point during the evening feeding time, or directly there after, one of us would notice a big puddle on the floor. I say puddle, because it wasn’t like she dribbled a little, it was like she emptied her bladder. One night, she actually squatted in front of me and peed.

WTF?

We started trying to be super conscious of letting her out BEFORE we fed her and it seemed to get better.

But then the last couple of weeks, every night when I got home, there’d be a puddle somewhere.

It’s not like she was peeing in the same spot because she was marking something. It was more like she was sleeping soundly, got up, realized she had to pee and made a beeline for the door, but couldn’t quite make it.

Sort of like a toddler when they are being potty-trained.

Delilah, like many spayed females, has a problem with urine leakage, so she takes a low dose of Estrogen to help strengthen those weak pelvic muscles. This has worked wonderfully for her for the past couple of years.

After about the 5th day in a row of a puddle on my rug, as well as countless loads of laundry washing urine drenched towels, I called the vet.

The vet wanted to do a urine culture to make sure Delilah didn’t have a urinary tract infection.

Since it was mid-week, I couldn’t get a sample to the vet until last Saturday. I really wasn’t concerned because Delilah had a huge problem with UTI’s a couple years back and at that time her symptoms were frequent squatting and she wasn’t doing that.

Using my PNS (Pee Ninja Skills) I obtained a sample last Saturday and dropped it off. Dr. Soutter called mid-morning and said under the microscope it looked good, but there were a few white cells in there and she wanted to culture it.

Dr. Soutter called on Monday to say the culture had grown something, so she put Delilah on the antibiotic that kicked her infection to the curb the last time she had one.

Since then, I’ve had her on the antibiotic as well as a low dose of Gabapentin (to help dull that urgency to go) and knock wood, we haven’t had any incidents in the house, BUT we are being hyper-vigilant AND Hubby has been able to get home an hour earlier than someone usually does, so I’m not really sure IF we’ve gotten to the root of the problem.

Monday I will stop the Gabapentin since she will have been on the antibiotic for almost a full week.

I know, none of this is smiling material, right? What’s the point of the post, Jodi?

Well….the biggest problem we’ve had is trying to determine WHERE Delilah would have her accident, SO I started leaving pee pads in random spots in the house.

Apparently, SOMEONE thinks pee pads are comfortable to lay on.

I had no sooner laid that down, then he laid down on top of it. Of course, that made laugh. Dude it’s not a mat!

What did your pet do to make you laugh or smile this week?

Yo, Dude, That’s My Salami!

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When we first got Delilah, she had a funny habit. Well, who am I kidding? Most of her habits ARE funny.

Delilah had a habit of sitting directly in front of you when you were eating, and making the dog equivalent of smacking her lips. Except in Delilah in  sounded like, “Thuwp, thuwp, thuwp.”

My daughter and I would laugh and laugh when she did it.

Yesterday, I did all my running in the morning, and by the time I got home, I was starving. I grabbed some sliced chicken and some salami, and settled down on the bed, to check my mail.

Delilah took a seat on the floor next to the bed, hoping for a treat. After a few minutes Sampson came loping into the bedroom, climbed up on the bed and started licking my salami bag!

Dude’s channeling his inner Delilah.

Do I look like a dude that would steal salami?

“Yo, Dude, that’s my salami!”

We got a good chuckle out of that one!

What did your pet do to make you laugh this week?

Pad-foot

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Delilah is pure Labrador. If you don’t have a Labrador in your life, I should tell you, they are excellent time keepers. Particularly when it comes to food.

Delilah is a shining example of Labrador time keeping skills. She knows exactly when she gets anything. Heart meds (in liverwurst) in at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7:00, banana chips at 7:30 when mom leaves for work, heart med liverwurst at 5:00 when mom comes home from work, dinner at 7:00, snack at 9:00, heart med liverwurst at 10:30.  If she were a Hobbit, she’d have names like breakfast, second breakfast, morning tea….etc. Thankfully, she’s not a Hobbit, but the best part is, she doesn’t talk, because God knows, I’d be drinking a lot more than whiskey in my coffee if she did.

Since she can’t talk (thank you, Jesus!) she does the next best thing. She sits in front of you and stares and if you get up, she’s right up your ass, making sure she doesn’t miss a thing. When she’s up your ass, she walks in such a way, that you can hear her walking. I call this sound, Pad-foot.

Sampson and Delilah get a stuffed, frozen Kong every night around 9:00 pm. It’s a simple concoction, stuffed with pineapple and frosted with canned pumpkin. I’ve had people ask me if it’s messy and to that I answer, “Yes, which is why we make the dogs eat the Kong on a throw rug.”

The rugs are old and discolored. I DO wash them every week, but the pumpkin stains, so they just look dirty. 🙂

Delilah is really good about putting her Kong on her rug. If for some reason she doesn’t use the rug, all you have to say is, “Put it on the rug,” and she will pick it up and move it.

Chocolate Lab with Kong

Do not disturb.

 

Delilah has a particular spot she typically has her Kong on, but there are nights where Sampson throws a wrench (figuratively, not literally. I mean, if I could teach a dog to throw a wrench, I’d be pretty rich) 🙂 in the works by laying too close to where Delilah would typically be, so I end up moving the rug.

Of course, there are always the nights where I’ve washed the rug that day, so it’s not in its normal place.

It is times like that, when I need to rearrange the rugs, that Delilah can be a real tax. Since she already KNOWS it’s snack time, she’s on high alert. When she sees me tidying or moving the treat rug, she can’t contain herself. She’s here, she’s there, she’s EVERYWHERE and I basically become a football player, trying to block her from standing on the rug while I’m trying to fix it.

I cannot laugh about it when it’s happening, in fact, I’m usually cussing, while Hubby’s usually laughing.

But hey, at least someone’s laughing.

What did your pet do to make you laugh this week?

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