Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I can hold it!

You know how it is when you're all braggy braggy about your puppy and then you find out something that they totally "fail" at (to use my little guy's language), and you have to reexamine all your braggy braggy-ness?  Well, I do.

Ya see, we took Hazel with us to Rockport this week.  Scout was there, too, but this is about Hazel as my braggy braggy-ness about Scout is solidly in tact.  Anyway, Hazel was a perfect passenger in the car all the way there.  She was an absolute delight!  We arrived at the house we were staying in and I promptly took the dogs for a nice long walk .  The wind was blowing, salt was in the air, birds were flying all around, and Hazel was utterly and completely distracted.  Too distracted to pee, it turned out.  I took her out many more times that evening hoping that she'd feel the need and deal with it...eventually!  Well, no, no, no, no, no...and then...finally...yes!  Whew!  We could safely go to bed with no worries of wet spots.  (She's been an amazing dog.  Only two or three accidents total as a puppy, one directly on my lap when she was super excited, and none since then.) 

The next morning I woke up to Hazel whining a little bit.  I figured she was telling me she needed to go.  I got up and took her and Scout outside.  Scout dutifully went potty, and Hazel dutifully sniffed the air.  This dog has a bladder of steel, I was thinking.  After wandering around outside in my P.J.s, and my mouth guard I'd sleepily left in (lookin' good, right?), impatiently waiting for her to do her thing, I took them back in.  I came to the realization that Hazel, while amazing in every other way, had no idea how to deal with her eliminations comfortably anywhere except our back yard.  I repeated this going outside process about once an hour.  All.  Day.  Long.  Hazel finally peed about mid-way through the day.  But, it was occurring to me, she had not yet had a poo.  These are worrisome thoughts, I'm telling you. 

I'm a teacher so I started thinking about what a doggie teacher would do to help Hazel.  As talking to her wasn't working, and I couldn't exactly expect her to understand visual picture representations of the activity, I decided that Scout was my best bet...as a model for what to do.  So, I encouraged Hazel to stay really close by Scout when we were out, as Scout is a "go on ahead and get 'er done" kind of girl.  Hazel diligently watched Scout pee and afterward, when I wanted her to sniff and then mark the spot, she instead just stepped directly on Scout's pee and tagged along behind her best buddy.  When Scout started to poo I got really excited because Hazel appeared to be really interested, getting closer, sniffing...and then suddenly sticking her head right between Scout's hind legs and was blissfully oblivious to the fact that a big turd just landed on her head.  Ugh!  Bath time!

Well, you'll be happy to know that Hazel did finally poo...three days later.  I hooted and hollered and carried on like a crazy woman.  Yes, this is me, all braggy braggy again!

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