A few weeks ago I took our dog, Bailey, to the vet because I knew he had an ear infection. Apparently looking into his filthy ears was like looking into a bowl of pudding so the doctor recommended putting him under and cleaning them out along with all the hair. This way he could start fresh with nicely groomed ears and all the medicine I would be applying twice a day could do it’s job. Well the doctor claims the procedure went fine and when I picked Bailey up he looked my dog, but once we got home, he appeared to be an imposter.
He instantly started eating all of Tiara’s crayons and he has yet to stop. This is a brand new behavior, never before the anesthesia had he ever done this. I know, I know, I complained about this last week but I am fed up with it! Now he walks around acting famished and psycho all the time. It’s like he is a wild coyote always searching for his next meal. Yesterday he went into my bathroom and dumped over Tiara’s diaper trash can and when we came home from our daily trip to Target, there spread all over the entrance was 2 chewed filthy, urine soaked diapers. Welcome Home…. I screamed my head off but obviously that didn’t help, except to make Tiara laugh. I so enjoyed picking up all the wet foamy pieces from the inside of the diaper, it really made my day even better.
He is constantly on the prowl for food, but as you know, what goes in must come out. As a result I am picking up poop in the back yard at least 5 times a day. Lou walks him every morning and in the past he did his business on the walk, and I rarely had to pick up poop in the backyard. But now everything has changed and I have to do a poop sweep several times a day before I can let Tiara into the back yard to play ball.
A few days ago I trimmed all the bushes in the back yard and when my Dad stopped by to visit the kids I was showing him my progress only to suddenly step in squishy warm poop with my bare feet. Once again, I yelled, and walked to the hose, while never missing a beat in our conversation. As I held up my foot to hose off the poop my standing foot was suddenly punctured by a thorn and I dropped to the ground while yelling profanities. My poor Dad just looked at me and said “Tiffani, really how can you do this?” “Seriously Dad, I am not sure any more, but I am about to give this dog away, there is only so much one person can take!”
My Dad isn’t a big fan of dogs and instantly jumped on my band wagon to get rid of Bailey. When Lou got home, I discussed it with him and he said we needed to talk to the girls even though he didn’t want to get rid of him, he realized his behavior was getting kinda out of control. I hate those people that get a pet only to get rid of it when the pet becomes an inconvenience. We’ve had him 5 1/2 years and suddenly he is insane and I don’t feel as if I have one ounce of patience left in my to distribute to another living creature.
Lou took him back to the doctors for a check up and asked the doctors opinion as to why he has suddenly developed all these weird behaviors and was starving all the time. (FYI, before the ear thing, we fed him once or twice a day and he rarely ate his whole bowl of food, he was more of picker. He could care less about food, he just wanted to be pet and follow me around.) The doctor said it was a training issue, “get an electric collar.” Really, seems a little suspicious, put a dog under anesthesia and he wakes up wacko.
Anyways I finally brought the subject up to Tabitha and her response was: “Mom, you act bad all the time and we haven’t gotten rid of you.!”
Whatever, guess I will work on training in my free time! Once again doing something I don’t want for the sake of my children. This whole parenting thing is way more involved than I first anticipated!
Happy Thursday
xoxo tiffani
Just a thought. Bailey had these terribly clogged ears. Most likely her hearing was impaired. Now with cleaned out ears…she is hearing everything super clearly and loudly. This could be stress eating. Common in dogs.
Also, could mess with her equilibrium .
Doubt it is behavioral.
Just my thoughts!
Ok, I was thinking something similar about the clogged ears, BUT I didn’t know about the stress eating. Thanks so much, I will research that today, seems to make more sense…
I hope things improve what Tabitha said made me laugh though.
Tabitha is hilarious! I laughed out loud when reading her comment in your blog today. I can’t wait to see when you have time to dog train during all this “free time” you have .
oh Tiff, I really feel for you. I know better than anyone how hard dog ownership can be, and you know how much i love dogs. that being said, as your oldest friend AND someone who has had to give a dog away, i think you should consider it. you NEVER put yourself and your own sanity first, and not only may not having Bailey ease your stress load, but he may be happier.
remember when i had to let Mabel go? it was SO hard, but after my divorce, I had to admit I couldn’t give her what she needed, hard as i tried…
whatever you decide, please think about yourself FOR ONCE.
xoxo