Atticus is a timid dog, and this is, at least, partially my fault. My early, fumbling training methods were a mix of au courant dog psychology tactics and heavy-handed stern taskmaster tactics learned at the feet of my parents. So while I don't hit my dog, I can yell at him pretty forcefully and have, at worst, handled him by the scruff of his neck when he's been egregiously willful in his misbehavior.
Over the last couple of mornings, he's backslid (backslided?) in his training, and hasn't been holding his pee until I can get dressed and get him out the door. And, weirder still, he's taken to sitting down and just letting it rip. I've never in my life seen a dog that sat down to pee. I've seen them squat and lift their legs, but this is the first time I've seen a dog just drop his rump on the ground and open his bladder. How he managed not to pee all over himself would be deserving of admiration, under other circumstances. He did it again tonight, you see, and since he had just been outside, I felt the need to really reinforce the notion that doing so in the apartment is unacceptable. There were some very forceful "Nos!" handed down, and some rubbing of the nose in the pee.
All of this is a very long way of getting to the fact that, as I type, he's sitting in his pen, bedded down for the night, and he's giving me the "You're a Very Bad Father" look.
I forget that Atticus isn't a stupid dog, and he really probably didn't need the nose rubbed in the pee. He knew he was doing something he oughtn't. You could see it from the look in his face even as he was peeing (since, god help him, once it starts, there's no shutting it off).
So he's probably giving me the "I'd eat your face if I could only get my mouth around it" look because he's gonna spend the rest of the night with the smell of his own pee in his nostrils.
I know how I'd feel if I had to smell the faint whiff of my own urine all night. But then again, I didn't pee on his rug, so he can just deal.
Over the last couple of mornings, he's backslid (backslided?) in his training, and hasn't been holding his pee until I can get dressed and get him out the door. And, weirder still, he's taken to sitting down and just letting it rip. I've never in my life seen a dog that sat down to pee. I've seen them squat and lift their legs, but this is the first time I've seen a dog just drop his rump on the ground and open his bladder. How he managed not to pee all over himself would be deserving of admiration, under other circumstances. He did it again tonight, you see, and since he had just been outside, I felt the need to really reinforce the notion that doing so in the apartment is unacceptable. There were some very forceful "Nos!" handed down, and some rubbing of the nose in the pee.
All of this is a very long way of getting to the fact that, as I type, he's sitting in his pen, bedded down for the night, and he's giving me the "You're a Very Bad Father" look.
I forget that Atticus isn't a stupid dog, and he really probably didn't need the nose rubbed in the pee. He knew he was doing something he oughtn't. You could see it from the look in his face even as he was peeing (since, god help him, once it starts, there's no shutting it off).
So he's probably giving me the "I'd eat your face if I could only get my mouth around it" look because he's gonna spend the rest of the night with the smell of his own pee in his nostrils.
I know how I'd feel if I had to smell the faint whiff of my own urine all night. But then again, I didn't pee on his rug, so he can just deal.
Meanwhile, it's hard to stay angry at him when he starts doing this:
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