Thursday, April 9, 2015

Treat Gods

Part of Henry's anxiety/dementia routine begins around 7 PM (or when the sun starts to set---depending on the time of year). Each night Henry will stand by the front door as though he needs to go potty. We will take him out and he will either do his business or decide to come right back in the house. About 10-15 minutes later, Henry again stands by the door and trained as we are, we let him out. He pees or poops or does nothing and then makes his way back to the house. When the door opens to go back in, he steps up and immediately begins looking to the "treat gods" for his payment of a small dog treat. 10-15 minutes later in the night, cue Henry to the front door. Outside, potty or no potty, front door opens, eyes to sky, treat. Rinse and repeat until 830-9 PM when finally he then is ready to be placed onto the big boy bed (the people bed) where he then will settle for a good night's sleep.

After each trip outside he looks to the sky for his treat. This routine was the pugs' bedtime routine for many, many years. They'd all go out front for a final pee pee of the night, rush to the front door, get paid in the form of a doggie cookie and then be put up on the big bed. Well, Henry starts this routine and practices it over and over and over again nightly. We know that he is not ready for bed when he begins doing this at 7:00 since we've tried to put him to bed and he will yelp for us to let him down off the bed. (We are very lucky that he does know that he's on the tall bed and does not to attempt to jump down.) And we have considered not rewarding him when he comes in if he has not gone potty, but we are worried that would make a disconnect to going outside to potty at all. It is just part of his OCD type anxiety and cognitive decline.

The funny part is the OBP parents would typically take turns letting Henry out and playing treat god. But each night Cupid will choose an OBP parent lap on which she will firmly plant herself for hours. And once Henry starts the ritual, the parent with the cat on the lap simply looks gazingly at the other as though to indicate, "hey, I can't go, I have a cat on my lap. I don't want to disturb her." While the unlucky one with no cat on lap, has to go up and down and up and down bringing an empty bladdered dog outside to do nothing but turn right back around and get a treat. At least Cupid does take turns when choosing a lap.

#CupidChoosesNoFavorites #HenryFakePottyForTreats #GoodPug