We all remember dot right? The adorable, fun loving, sassy basset hound?
Ok, well Dot isn't so adorable and fun loving anymore.
The adorable part... maybe.
Before Sarah came in to the world we tried to prepare the dogs as much as possible. We tried to teach them down and quiet, played crying baby tracks when it was quiet and even carried stuff in our arms so they got used to us not being "theirs" 24/7.
I wasn't worried about the puppies in all honesty, yes the training was difficult and some days you would swear they had amnesia and forgot EVERYTHING, but they are young and I figured they would bounce back from this life changing event mostly unscathed.
Dot on the other hand, I knew her adjustment was going to go one of two ways, she would either not give a hoot or spiral out of control.
Can we guess which happened?
Do you think I would be writing a blog post if she didn't give a hoot?
It started when we came home, when my mom and husband made their way to and from the hospital I made sure they took the blanket Sarah had been wrapped in and let the dogs smell it. That's what all the books said to do. Check!
Then when we got home we introduced her to the big dogs, one by one. Dot ran up the stairs and came right to me and wanted belly rubs, then she heard it.
a whimper of something new.
She sniffed around and hopped up on the bed and I could tell she was anxious. Not in an aggressive way, just in a "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" way. She sniffed her and when Sarah began to cry Dot hunched away with her tail in between her legs.
We tested sleeping in our room that night, with the baby and the dogs. Cooper was terrified of the new human and the pack and play and was shaking the bed violently with his panting, while Dot could't get comfortable and every time the baby made a noise the dogs where right there to investigate. Looking back we probably shouldn't have discouraged this behavior but ce la vie. It was a hard first night home and at about 2 am I had had enough of the dogs walking all over me and we put them in the living room. Dot barked the whole night, to this day it still breaks my heart thinking about that night.
Her behavior started to decline further, she isn't as affectionate as she was, she doesn't like to sit with me or by me, she hates being upstairs and the biggest aggravation, she has started messing in the house.
We thought it was us, being all consumed with the baby, but when we started to really pay attention we found she will go outside and play and come in and immediately mess in the dining room and then try to go back outside to play.
We are at our wits end.
We have punished bad behavior, rewarded good, tried to single out one on one time with her and nothing is working.
She hasn't had it easy these past few years, what with moving, that addition of Cooper and then the pups. I just don't think she had another life changing event in her to cope with and she is saying "F&*% YOU MOM AND DAD!" The worst is that the pups are picking up on this behavior and are starting to join in, they have destroyed our new couch and tore up some of Sarah's clothes.
We are starting to boil over and have even discussed getting rid of all the dogs, but we know we can't do that, we just day dream of being a dog free home.
We aren't sure where to go from here, one more pup is going to their forever home in a couple weeks and then we are down to one. We keep telling ourselves that 4 is easier than 5 just like 5 was easier than 6.
I just feel like I let my first born fur baby down, oh the guilt of being a fur momma and a real momma.
You rolled over once, on a bed, with me on it. Ok so it was like rolling down a hill but you still got yourself on your side so I say it counts.
You have started to flirt with sleeping through the night, I think we have had 5 full nights of sleep this month and all the other times it was just one wake up. YAY! For everyone being more rested.
