Living with aging dogs can bring some humorous moments, but there are also many moments that bring a touch of sadness with them. Then of course there are the funny moments that make you sad.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Sampson has been having some issues with noise. He gets very upset when either Hubby’s or my mom’s cell phones go off.  Typically he gets up and leaves the room. One day last week Hubby caught him lying down in the shower. His belly got all wet. Silly dog.

The strange thing is that my cell phone going off doesn’t bother him.

I’m pretty sure the reason he’s having such issues stems from last year when the smoke alarm went crazy and he was stuck in the house for who knows how long with that infernal beeping. The holistic vet says an incident like that can ruin a dog.

Ruin. A. Dog.

His regular vet feels Hubby and Mom’s cell phones may have the same frequency as the smoke alarm, which could attribute to why he freaks out when he hears them.

To be clear, he doesn’t run around in a blind panic when he hears the noise, he simply gets up and leaves the room. Sometimes he wants to go outside. If I’m there with him, I usually just call him over to me and reassure him it’s okay and that’s usually enough.

Remember last week when I said I was grateful my mom wasn’t in the hospital over Thanksgiving or Christmas? Well for sure, she went into the hospital on the 30th and has been there ever since, which means, there is no-one downstairs for Sampson. Most of last week Hubby was home with him so he could just let him downstairs, but with everyone back to work, I don’t like leaving him down there alone.

I picked up some calming chews at my local Pet Valu store and ran it past my vet, who said sure, try it. (FTR she has a preferred brand, but I’d already bought these so they are the ones we’re using.)

The directions say 1 to 2 chews per day for a dog Sampson’s size. I wanted to try them on him while someone was home with him, so last week I gave him two. Didn’t think that through, because I should have saved one for the afternoon, but I learn. 😉

Anyway, he doesn’t seem to be having an issue with them, except I’m thinking they help him relax so he can get into a super deep sleep.

Tuesday night he was snoring away on the couch. I was in the kitchen finishing supper clean up and Delilah was there supervising. After I finished I gave her a bit of beef lung as a reward for sitting so nicely. As is the custom, when Delilah gets a reward for sitting in the kitchen, Sampson gets one for staying OUT of the kitchen.

So I walked into the living room. Did I mention he was snoring on the couch? So I stuck the chunk of lung under his nose and waited for him to sniff it in his sleep and wake up. But he didn’t.  I got my camera, went back over and stuck the treat  under his nose again.

 

Nothing.

I snapped the picture.

He woke up, ate the treat and closed his eyes to go back to sleep.

It made me laugh, but it made me sad at the same time. My old boy is tired, he’s really tired and he sleeps a lot, which makes me sad.

Upcoming events:

Sunday is the day for the 6th annual Pet Blogger Challenge hosted by Go Pet Friendly. You can find all the details (along with this year’s questions) HERE.

AND lest we forget, Blog the Change for Animals is coming up on the 15th of this month. As far as I know, the linky will be hosted on CindyLu’s Muse blog.

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.