Friday, September 19, 2014
Sink or Swim
As you all know, Henry lost his left eye earlier this year. This has forever knocked his depth perception out of whack. His right eye isn't that hot, though, either. He can sort of see but there is a small cataract on that eye, as well. He is on drops to hopefully help control any potential sudden inflammation that may occur.
What problems his poor eyesight has caused recently, though, is a doozy. He's fallen into the pool twice now. Once was in broad daylight (while we were cutting the grass and he was trying to stay in our vicinity. The other time was just last night. In the dark.
The pattern seems to be that Henry goes onto the pool deck, peers out the door on the far side of the house and then wonders his way over to the other side of the pool deck (where the doggy door and fenced in yard are). As we swaggers from one side to the next, he loses his sense of how close he is to the pool. Especially since at this point the pool would fall on his blindside. Thus, it just takes one misstep and in he goes. :(
Henry used to love the pool but the older he got the less he enjoys it. Benny & Luna never really loved the pool but both of them were at least good swimmers! Henry has never been a good swimmer. But each time he has fallen into the pool he has done what we had always taught the pugs to do. And that lesson was "swim to the step" and it is obvious that he has remembered his training.
The first time he fell in he swam to the step and got out. Then last night he was swimming to the step when we had to jump in and "rescue" him. This raises many red flags for us since Henry now goes potty much more frequently (minus a kidney, meds that make you drink more/pee more) and this includes in the middle of the night. So we are starting to be paranoid that he may fall into the pool overnight and we could sleep through it.
We have come to a resolve about possible solutions and once that has been implemented and tested we will share how it worked out. Until then, we are making sure that he never goes out alone and he may just have to either "hold it" or have an accident in the overnight. His safety is far more important than any dang old potty accident!
For those still not getting the emails.....this is because there have not been any new featured pug photos. Without the photos, there is no email. OBP is working on getting caught up on those. We apologize for having to come find us when we are usually delivered straight to your inbox. We are doing our best and sadly, that is what is giving right now. Thank you for your patience.
Bill
09/19/2014
Have you considered dog litter? My pug doesn’t like the litter (he will hold it as long possible), but he uses during the night every once in a while and has never had an accident. He also uses it if the weather is too extreme—there was high of -16 this past winter that I wasn’t letting him go out in.