Her Life as a Dog

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I have a friend whose cat was the center of her life, more of a child than a child. That is, until she had an actual child. I remember asking after her first son was born about the cat, how’s the cat handling the baby and vice-versa. She responded, “Oh right! Turns out that the cat is a cat!”

Poor dog. The lab was similarly the love of our lives, and fulfilled her duties as “best friend” with aplomb during bedrest, and even those dark weeks after we lost the pregnancy. It was hard to cry when a long lab nose started nudging your face and licking the tears away. So I dedicate this post to her because I feel badly about how I have handled the unwelcome changes in her life these last 6 months. See, she is in her dog adolescence right now, and like any older sibling, she hasn’t appeared pleased about the bundle of joy. How has she showed her displeasure? Not by harming little Q in anyway. No, unless he can be hurt by dog kisses, which are plentiful, he is mostly fine (“mostly” because of the odd tail whack here and there). She shows her feelings by acting out. Oh yes. Apparently, child development applies to dogs and like children, any attention is better than no attention at all. Quinn will fall asleep (finally!) and suddenly, the lab needs to bark her head off at a passerby outside the window. When you hiss, “No! Quiet” she looks at you with ears up curiously as if to say, “You talking to me? You finally talking to me?” No need for her to remember that the passerby walked by earlier. At that time, she appeared not to notice passerby’s presence. She was also being rubbed and patted during that particular passerby walkby. Hmmm.....

She gets in the way during floor time since she wants to be part of the fun. She goes into the garbage if it is not totally out of reach. She pulls on her leash after not being walked for a few days (before the bundle she was walked every day). My interaction with her has turned into several incarnations of the word "no." Whether my "no" is finished with “barking” “pulling” “hanging around.” The dog has heard “no!” for 6 month’s straight.

When our friends were here last weekend, she got a lot of dog love. There were more hands, more hanging out, and more petting. And guess what? She was much better behaved! A few times I caught her sleeping contentedly when the 6 of us were together, her pack fantasy fulfilled. She always has been happiest with a group of people around.

How can I explain to her that things will be great for her in short order? The food alone will make her happy as Quinn progresses into toddlerhood. She has already figured out to hang under Quinn’s high chair while we experiment with rice cereal, squash and other yummy’s. She practically gets a second dinner when he eats his dinner (like a champ these days), and like any lab, she lives up to her breed’s stereotype regarding food. And Quinn has already started smiling and reaching for her. Now she just puts up with it, but soon she will understand that the way back into happiness is through the unwanted bundle. He’ll give her all the positive reinforcement she needs.

In the meantime, I am trying to give her more pats and love when she is being “good” and seeing if some positive attention balances her need to act out for any attention at all. Poor lab.