Charlie has been sleeping with us in the bedroom since Day 1 and recently me and the bf made a mutual decision to move his bed and pen to the living room. He’s just shedding too much and it’s very discouraging to find your bedroom covered in hair only one day after you have meticulously cleaned it.
Banished to the living room. See how emo he looks -_-
This morning would have marked the end of the 2nd night alone for Charlie. However, I opened the door to find him lying right outside our bedroom instead of in his pen. We still don’t know whether he opened the pen himself or whether we didn’t latch it properly the night before.
And then the smell hit me. He has pooped at the doorway and pissed right next to our sofa -_-
I was livid! But having him for more than a year already, I knew it’s too late to reprimand him because he wouldn’t understand what it’s for and will probably repeat his actions anyway. Dogs are not human beings…they have no concept of past or future, they live in the moment. So the only time to reprimand a dog is when you caught him or her in the act.
We made him go into his cage and took about 1/2 hour to clean up his mess. Got to admit, eversince I got Charlie, I’ve learnt to be more patient and responsible. When Charlie was a puppy he used to poop EVERYWHERE and it was pure HELL! I used to want to give him away almost every other day. Thankfully those soulful doe eyes had managed to stop me from doing that.
Well, it’s just not Charlie to poop/pee in the house and the only reason I can think of is that he was affected by the whole sleeping alone thing :(
The other day I was just chatting with the bf about my constant guilt towards Charlie and whether it was normal. You know, I work for long hours on the laptop everyday, so most often time I cannot provide Charlie with proper playtime. What he does is that he curls up in a corner or on my feet with his eyes closed while I tap away, only moving when I call his name or touch him. Of course I don’t totally ignore him…for every hour I’m on the laptop I’d cuddle or play with him for a couple of minutes etc but I still feel like it’s not enough. I don’t know if it’s Charlie’s face or what but whenever he gives me that bored or pained expression, a little bit of me inside dies.
Curled up like that, bored out of his wits.
The bf thinks I’m crazy for feeling guilty and there’s one thing he said that really made sense to me. Charlie has to grow up and we have to learn everyday not to live our lives around him, he should be the one living his life around us.
So sorry Charlie, you’re still sleeping alone tonight :(
