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September 19th, 2012

The next day did seem calmer.  I developed a little routine that would work for me and would help him.  When he awoke, I would take him out the front door as planned for his walk and morning potty.  Change his route home through the back gate, and do my guided tour around the back yard.  Then when we got into the kitchen, I had picked a area on a rug for training.  He would train and get his morning 1/2 cup of food for breakfast.  Then upstairs, his morning pill and then he would quietly play for a couple of hours until time for his next walk.  Then I could begin a leisurely morning and finally get something done.

Lasted for about 10 minutes.  I heard him barking loud, I ran to the bathroom, there he was in my huge garden tub, spinning.  I couldn't believe he had been able to jump into the tub.  However, I thought how cute, and through his ball into tub to play.  Remember his "special occasion ball", which had become his "car ball",.  Well, it had become his "only thing to shut him up ball" and he had it with him at all times.  He seemed to be so happy to have the ball.  Again, I went to start my morning over again.  Only to hear his familiar bark.  Seems he could not get out of the tub and that ball was now his "boring ball".  I removed him and his ball from the tub.  Back to playing he went, I felt encouraged after watching him for another 10 minutes.  Third time will be the charm, I thought. No, no, there would be no charm today.

The next hour was spent training me to get him out of the tub, every few minutes.  Drake in, ball in, both out.  Exhausted, I put him in his crate a little earlier than planned and a little more often than planned.  I had only created another problem.  The play room was used, but not for very long at a time.   Honestly, I thought my ideas were good.  I knew they would work, if given enough time, but what to do about the tub.  As the day continued, I tried to stayed positive.  He had cut down on the spinning, he was much calmer with my new scheduled and did I think this was going to be easy?  Of course not.  Had I made progress, yes.  He continued to not want to share space with any of my dogs.  Most of them kept trying to approach him.  There was still a list of  problems to live a normal life with this sweet, intelligent dog.  I trusted my instincts more and knew there was more information to be found.  I would have to dig deeper and expand my circle of advisers.  Time, I have always known that time was your best friend in every occasion.  So, I would be calling on my old friend once again.