What Are You Doing On The Bed--Update

For over a week, Rowdy hadn't got on the bed, after the last episode I wrote about.  Now for the last four nights at around 5 to 6 AM, whenever I get up to go to the bathroom, he has got off his blanket and jumped up onto my place on the bed.  When I come back into the room and with an angry tone of voice, I tell him NO and to get down.  He only hesitates for a second, before he jumps down and that's that for the night.  What am I gonna do with him to get him to stop?!?! 

What Are You Doing On The Bed?

So Rowdy usually isn't allowed on the bed unless I let him up, like whenever there is a storm and he gets scared.  Occasionally, he will sit beside the bed and stare at me with those puppy dog eyes and I will put his blanket up on the bed and let him spend the night there.  If I leave the house and forget to close the bedroom door, he will get on the bed without permission and lay where I sleep, or on top of my pajamas.  I have caught him at it several times, whenever I enter the door and he comes from the direction of the bedroom.  I will run down to the bedroom and feel for the warm spot, where he had just been laying.  

Recently, he started a new trend.  Occasionally, when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, he will bet up off of his blanket and jump up on the bed and lay in my spot.  Many nights, he will get up off of his blanket sometime in the middle of the night and go lay on the couch.  Then sometime before morning he will return to his blanket and be there when it is time to get up.  

So the first time I caught him at this, I had went to the bathroom and when I cam back into the room, I didn't see him on the blanket so I assumed he was down on the couch.  There is a nightlight in a wall receptacle, down low that illuminates his blanket, but you can't really see the top of the bed very well.  The color of his hair match the sheets on the bed, so I didn't see him there and almost laid right on top of him.  I flipped on the light and told him to get down several times, before he reluctantly got off the bed and back to his blanket.

A couple of nights later he did the same thing and I looked closely and spotted him on the bed this time.  Instead of trying to coax him off, I simple grabbed him by the feet, picked him up upside down and set him on his blanket.  A few days later he repeated this again and I responded in the same way.  After this he stopped doing this for a couple of weeks, that is until last night.  After returning from the bathroom, I didn't see him on the floor and proceeded to lie down, right on top of him again.  This time, I jumped up, turned on the light and he got a pop on the rear and scolded to get down.  He quickly got down and that was that, at least for last night.

I'm wondering what will happen in the next few nights now!

 

  

 

 

A Fireworks Scare

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an outdoor celebration of a local State Senate candidate, who won the election.  Later that evening there was a large fireworks display, that rivaled any show that any local city had put on to celebrate the 4th of July.  

I have taken Rowdy to many fireworks shows and they have never bothered him before.  Unfortunately this time we were much, much closer to where they set them off at, than we've been in the past.  The loud noises from them, scared him this time.  He tried crawling up on me for comfort and protection, so I lifted him up into my lap and held him close to me with his head on my chest.  I tried reassuring him, but he just trembled and shook in my arms.

After several minutes, I took him to the car and put him inside, so it would muffle the noise from him.  Then I set my chair up in front of the car to watch the rest of the show.  When the show was over, Rowdy had calmed down completely by the time I got back in the car to leave.  So I guess we'll just have to keep watching those shows from a distance.

A Seat Too Small

 At home, Rowdy always likes to get up on the couch with me, whenever I am either watching a show or on the phone.  Also, sometimes I have to sit up at night, so I will come down to the couch and he will follow.

At the farm, Whenever I am doing the same things, I am sitting in my mother's old recliner, which is not much bigger than I am.  Well, Rowdy still wants to get up there with me and he will jump up on me and try to wiggle himself out a spot that he can lay in.  If I scoot over to one side, he has a narrow trough that he barely fits into.  He seems to have a hard time getting comfortable, but he rather be up there with me, than be on the floor. 

Not Feeling Well

This morning, I noticed that Rowdy wasn't following me around the house like he normally does and just stays wherever he is laying down.  I felt his nose and it was hot, indicating he isn't feeling well.  I've seldom ever seen him with a warm or hot nose.  I'll keep an eye on him today and check him frequently to make sure he is okay.  

Update; Later in the afternoon, Rowdy felt much better.  We were out at the farm and he was very excited and running around at full speed, like he had a firecracker taped to his butt and the fuse was lit.  

However, the next day he seemed alright, but that evening his nose was hot again and he acted like he wasn't feeling well again.

Hunka-hunka-hunka-hunka

Out at the farm today, I was getting things ready for work.  I was at one end of the shop building facing into the building, which is a fairly large shop with each end open and only two walls.

Well, all the sudden to my right, Rowdy takes off in a tear, with his hair standing up on his back and sort of growl-barking up the outside of the shop on the right.  After his initial burst and while he was running, he was making a sound like, hunka, hunka, hunka, hunka.  I'm not certain what he was doing, but I believe he was slightly growling while running and although he is not a really fat dog, he ain't skinny either and I think the jarring of his running, was causing him to make the sound.  I've seen him tear off running, chasing another animal like a squirrel, but he is usually either silent or has a rolling growl as he runs.    

So away he went hunka, hunka, hunka, hunka, up one side of the shop, then hunka, hunka, hunka, hunka, across the back.  Then I caught a movement to the left and it was a rabbit, that quickly dove into a hole in the side of the old barn.  Then here came Rowdy, hunka, hunka, hunka, down the other side and he stopped along the side over next to the barn, smelling for where the rabbit had gone.

He didn't get his rabbit today, but he was sure excited with the chase. 

Opposite of scared the pee out of him.

This evening, when I got home from work, I let Rowdy outside to do his business.  Within a couple of seconds of when he stepped outside, a firework went off close by.  Instead of scaring the pee out of him, it scared him back indoors and it was a couple of hours before he would finally go back outside to the bathroom.


What's funny is that he is not particularly scared of fireworks.  I have taken him to firework shows and he just lays by my chair and tunes them out for the most part.  He'd rather be with me during the noise, than be alone in the house with the noise in the neighborhood.  It was probably because this one sounded more like thunder, which he really doesn't like and decided it was safer in the house at that moment.