Life with the Pup

We have had puppies before. They are nothing new to us. Life with this puppy is very different. He does the normal puppy actions such as chasing the cats by pouncing around the house with a full body wiggle and a giggle. He licks and bites at people in a playful way when he is excited. He, however,  has a unique set of challenges because of is medical issues that we are not use to. The main difference with this puppy and all the others we have had before is this one does things he can not help.

First of all, he can not control his bladder all the time and leaks. He seemed to be better about it after the surgery but now I am beginning to believe that maybe he was swelling and that is what was helping him keep the contents of his bladder restrained. He actually slept through the night last night and didn't have an accident in the house... which thrilled me this morning! I got up and walked him and brought him in to feed him and noticed the towel he slept on was damp. Poor thing had leaked while he slept. There have been other incidents of this this past week.

Yesterday he walked through the kitchen leaking a bit and kept stopping and licking himself and whining. He doesn't seem to understand it. In fact Saturday seemed to be the first time he noticed it - I honestly think he blamed me! It was just  two days after his surgery and he leaked a little on my jeans and shirt. I put him in the floor and he then sniffed the spot above the knee of my jeans and tilted his head almost to say, "why did you do that"? His reactions to things are comical, one can almost read his thoughts because of the way he jesters.

So, training him is a bit different. We encourage him to lay on towels or puppy approved blankets in the living room. We discourage him from going anywhere in the house that has carpet instead of hard surfaces for flooring. We do not get on to him for having any sort of leakage issues, he can not help it and it actually seems to bother him.  Leakage is definitely challenge number one with him.

The second challenge with this puppy that is that he had surgery. Life with an animal that has had major surgery is always a little difficult. Of course you have to make sure they do not injure themselves or remove the stitches. The surgery gave him a good many stitches but he doesn't seem to notice them 90% of the time. Then after surgery you have to medicate them. He is on antibiotics for weeks because of the surgery and the infection he had prior to surgery. These are standard challenges and I do not squabble with them... they are what they are.

 My main discouragement from the surgery is that he seemed to be house trained in two days by us prior to surgery, now we are having to retrain him. We are making sure the only things we yell in this house are "NO" and "Down"! We do not get upset when he has any sort of accident, instead we escort him outside promptly and praise him when it completes the elimination act outside! Right now I have plenty of paper towels and Lysol on hand to clean the floors! I have never had to train a puppy twice and it seems to be harder this time.

No matter how different he and this situation are there is always a smile on our faces. He is such a sweet puppy. He seems to really like it here and seems to be flourishing in this environment. We have given up all hope of him being adopted out. I don't think anyone would take on his challenges of incontence- to whatever degree he has and his predisposition to ut infections. We are planning to heal him in the house then move him to the yard when he is older and more capable of playing with the other dogs. At this point there are not any regrets! My husband told me something the other night that fit, "We now know the price of a concionce ... what was it $752.00? Because if you had left him on the road then you would not of slept well that night knowing you left him, so with your conciounce you stopped and dealt with him and it cost you... which is fine because I would of done the same thing"! I have an amazing family, an amazing life and I am blessed with every ounce of my soul and if I share it with a farm of rejects (what I call all the dumped animals) then so be it.