Reasons not to have a dog!

I'm not a happy bunny this morning.

Where I live, I'm in the middle of a row of houses that are set back quite far from the road. There's a path for pedestrians next to the road and then a second path in front of the houses. George is fine about people on the first path. But will bark if there's someone on the resident's path. And if it's middle of the night he goes into full-on Invasion Alert.

And that's what he did at 3:45 this morning. I hadn't got to sleep until 1am. And after the Alert, he would not settle down. He was up and down, backwards and forwards, on the bed off the bed.... after 10 mins of this I got up and took him out so he could see it was safe. He charged up and down the road, hackles up. I just waited. Then he had a pee and came back to the door.

But he still would not settle. Two hours before he lay down and went to sleep. And that's because I lost my temper with him. Which meant I was too wound up to go straight back to sleep and it took another hour before I did. Which takes us up to 6:45.

At 9am Upstairs started hoovering her living room.

 

I do sympathise, Laura.
We got a new milkman a couple of months ago and my dog, if he's downstairs on his bed, will bark when he delivers the milk(around 2am weekdays, 6ish on Saturdays). That always wakes me. I can't always go back to sleep and I'm not very happy, especially if it's the weekend.
But when he's upstairs by my bed, he doesn't bark at all!

Perhaps your lovely dog thinks he is protecting you from the night-time monsters, bless him!

 

I liked the fact that he barked. We have a drug addict living a few streets away so there's been a spate of burglaries recently. I have a suspicion that he and his friends tried the front door to see if it could be forced open and George scared them off.

It was the not settling for hours afterwards that wound me up. Even after I showed him the empty street he was still stressing.

 

A few funny stories regarding the Scottie dog we had when I was a teenager. He was solidly built so very strong. He once got a big grass seed head stuck between the toes of one paw which worked it's way in so it had to be removed by a vet. From then on, he was wary of having anything stuck to his fur, like a leaf, so he would immediately stop and roll over and wait for you to remove it if he noticed one. Taking him for a walk on his lead through the woods in the Autumn was a nightmare. He'd notice a leaf on himself, stop and roll over and for a second or two you'd find yourself dragging him. So you had to stop and remove dozens of leaves off him.

He had three walks of different lengths from the fromt of our house. Each day he always chose which one he wanted to take and wouldn't go on any of the others when he'd made his choice.
He hated having his fur clipped, he'd hide under a bed for a couple of days after having it done.
He didn't like men in hats, I guess the postman must have kicked him once.

Once when my parents took him on holiday, they were on the train and Mac was sitting on my dad's lap. The compartment door came open and in stepped the ticket collector wearing a hat and clicking his ticket punch. It was all my dad could do to restrain him from attacking the poor bloke.
The dog had a lot of patience. It was OK if a couple of you were in the same room with him, but if any more people came in, he'd want to go out. He'd sit facing the door for an hour before giving a quiet bark to attract your attention.

I took him to the vet once. The vet had him standing on a table examining him, when he noisily broke wind, (the dog, not the vet) He immediately turned round, looked at his rear end and barked at it.

The poodle we had when we were in our twenties was very bright and tough as old boots.
He had a problem with one of his hips. He'd tear around playing in the park with our son and occasionally he'd dislocate his right leg. He'd hop over to you on three, wait whilst you put his leg back in and then he'd be off again.



We only had one child then, he'd have been about four. We lived in a big old house on three floors. We'd play hide and seek with the dog. My wife would keep him next to her whilst I and our son went to hide. Then she'd tell him to find us. He'd search the house methodically, top to bottom, then go back to her if he didn't find us. She'd tell him to go and look again. Again he'd searrch every floor in turn. He always found us the second time if not the first.

 

Another dog story.

Sam.

(can't seem to find a photo at thee moment), a big dog, he looks like a husky, but with brown eyes. his facial markings make him look as if he's smiling.
Anyway...Childless married couple friends of ours were walking in some local woods one Sunday when they found him tied to a tree with a bit of rope.
He was very friendly. There was no one around so they took him to the police station.
They didn't want to know, so they took him to an animal shelter.
Overnight they decided they would have him. So they went back to the shelter for him. He cost them £150 because he'd been checked over by a vet and been chipped! They've had him for two years and never regretted it, the vet reckoned he was abouty two when they found him.

 

Reasons to HAVE dogs far outweigh reasons not to?
Currently sat at my desk with two dogs using my feet as pillows, would I change a thing? yes, would like more feet for the other four dogs!