Three of the dogs are not concerned in the least about my pregnancy. Their rigorous daily routines of eat, sleep, poo, bark, remain blissfully undisturbed.
And then there's Howard. Howard is my guy. I can't get enough of him. I adopted him back in 2008 and I've been in love ever since. To be honest, Howard is a breeders nightmare. His eyes are buggy, even for a chihuahua, and they are constantly dripping. When he is sleepy, one of his ears droops down and he can't hold it up no matter how he tries. As a puppy he suffered a broken leg which healed improperly. As a result his inner leg bone stopped growing while the outer continued as normal. By the time I adopted him he was completely bow legged in one of his front legs. He has badly luxating patellas in both rear legs which cause them to look wobbly when he walks. And to complete the package, he has a buck tooth. Yes, an actual buck tooth. His features all conspire to make him look really simple. My mom says that Howard looks like a child's drawing of a dog. To me, he's a perfectly gorgeous creature.
Howard is only four pounds, so with his teeny tiny bladder he needs to go outside pretty frequently to empty. Thankfully, he is a champ at alerting us when it's time. He sits in front of one of us and if we don't get the hint he'll let out a small whine. We then ask him if he needs to go outside, and if he does, he barks once and heads for the door. Easy peasy, right?
Our happy routine was disturbed right about the same time my morning sickness began. In the space of a couple days, we caught him urinating in odd locations around the house three times. After doing some research I learned that this reaction was one common in dogs reacting to the scent of hormones in their pregnant humans. It was suggested that we reinforce his training and reward proper behavior.
We began confining Howard to a small area of the living room, taking him out for a ton of bathroom breaks, and praising him like he'd just won an Oscar every time he peed outside. In a few days, the problem seemed to have been solved.
Only to be replaced by a new problem. Thanks to a ton of training by Andy "Chihuahua Whisperer" Hubs, Howard has a good sense of his place in the house. It helps that he is a very submissive beast by nature. He is very patient even when Lillian decides to lay right on top of him for a nap!
In the last few weeks though, he has become mega protective of the babies and me! He will often station himself at my feet and refuse to budge. At the smallest noise he will bark like a maniac and run back and forth in front of me.
So for our sweet Howard Brown-Sauce, the freedom following TinkleGate was short lived. He gets one warning at a bark, then gets moved to a bed across the room, away from me. The next bark puts him on time out in his kennel.
The discipline is working. Howard Lee is remembering who is in charge, and that it's not him.
It is comforting to know however, that should anyone ever try to harm our babies, they will have to deal with four pounds of fury, albeit incredibly cute fury!
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