Doggie Woes

I don’t know what to do with Tallulah (2 year old, German Shorthaired Pointer). We had some problems with her digging when we first got her. It took about 6 months to get that under control – she pretty much digs when she’s bored so we just increased the number of walks and started to send her to daycamp a couple of times a month and all was well.

She’s been back to digging lately. It’s no mystery why. Audrey is more active now and is crawling all over the place which means there’s more attention on her and less on the dog. There’s no getting around that. Todd takes her on a good walk when I nurse Audrey and put her to bed but she probably needs more then that.

Todd ran to Home Depot last night to get some stuff to patch the fence where Tallulah has been digging (the hole is on the side of the fence facing our favorite neighbors. They have 2 dogs and a cat that hang out in the back yard). I was getting Audrey to sleep and making her bottles for today when I heard Tallulah bark like crazy. I went outside (in my nursing bra and PJ pants) but couldn’t see her anywhere but it was dark and her coat is spotted which makes her very hard to see. I could hear her tags banging around so I assumed she was running around. I went back inside after shouting at her to shut up (ironic, no?), checked on the baby monitor and found shirt/shoes to throw on.

She was still making a ton of noise a few minutes later so I went back outside and found her SITTING ON OUR NEIGHBORS DECK SCRATCHING AT THEIR DOOR. Luckily they weren’t home and Todd pulled into the driveway – he opened the gate to their yard and she came trotting out like everything was perfectly normal. She was an absolute beast again this morning which resulted in Todd going into work almost an hour late because she wouldn’t come in. She was tearing around the yard and barking her crazy head off. Most everyone in our ‘hood has at least one dog except for the neighbors on the side that Tallulah doesn’t dig. She must sense that they’re no fun and she doesn’t want to hang out with them :-P It’s a matter of time before they call the cops on her. After last night I’m tempted to call them myself :-)

We've taken her to school THREE times. She's a champion when it comes to sitting and staying but completely ignores the "come here" command when she's distracted by anything. Sadly, shouting "sit!" and "stay" when she's in hunting dog mode are useless.

I know she just needs some extra love and attention, poor thing. In a year her and Audrey will tire each other out and all will be well. I don’t know if I can make it until then!!!!!