Saturday, May 19, 2007

Who needs sleep anyway?

Linus' foster mom warned us that he always woke up at 4:30 am. We haven't been having that problem until 2 nights ago. I think it hasn't been a problem before due to Chris' rotten hours. He wasn't getting home until almost midnight. He'd let the dogs out & even take them on a walk before he'd go to sleep.
Yesterday he woke Chris up at 4:30. He went down & let them outside to do their business and then left them loose inside. Imagine my surprise when I walked out of the bedroom (containing a sleeping husband) and saw Einstein waiting for me in the hall.

Last night, Linus decided to get an early start. He started crying as soon as we went to bed. He even started to get a bit hysterical. We shut the bedroom door & tried to ignore it. Any response, negative or positive, would just reinforced the behavior so we worked at ignoring it. Surprisingly we did get to sleep.
Linus went off a couple of more times during the night and way too early in the morning.
Who needs sleep anyway?

This is all part of having a new dog. We'd love to say it's because of his background but Darwin & Einstein both did this. Darwin couldn't be in his crate at all so we wound up blocking off our tiny kitchen in the apartment & letting him sleep there (with lots of newspapers for accidents). Einstein had massive separation anxiety and would cry almost all night. Shouldn't dogs get hoarse after awhile?
So, we just have to hang in for a few more days until Mom arrives & we run away on vacation.

Linus is showing himself to be a fairly needy dog. If I'm in the computer room (which is out of sight for him from the love seat), I hear pitiful crying. If I talk to him, he'll eventually calm down. It never seems to occur to him that he can come looking for me. I'm sure that will come with time. The up side to this is a dog who lays down on the couch next to you and puts his head in your lap. Or one who wants to snuggle with Chris so much that he wriggles onto the remaining loveseat space & depends on Chris to keep him from falling off. Or one who is bouncy with joy when you come downstairs in the morning. He's worth it.
Last night he did cruise around the downstairs. I asked him if he needed to go potty & he headed for the back door. He took care of his business outside. He did wander around the house some more after he came back in. He rang the bells earlier in the day when he needed to pee. This time he needed to poop & he didn't ring the bells. Something to remember.

Well, time for breakfast & cleaning.

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