Dogs' days disturbed
November 19th 2008 05:38
Please don't leave me
Our dogs like their days to go like this: wake at first birdsong, whine outside the bedroom door for a minute until Big Boss yells "Go away," go away, laugh, dig hole in garden or destroy fluffy cushion or bark at birds or inspect interior of rubbish bin or do zoomie laps of the house until Big Boss or Little Boss appear for walkies time followed by breakfast, sleep the sleep of exhausted innocents, wake, eat dinner, sleep, wake at first birdsong ...
It is an established routine with which the dogs are clearly comfortable, and so it is perhaps not surprising that they looked confused and unhappy recently when I woke them in the middle of the afternoon and ejected them from the house.
"I have a new job," I told them. "The shift starts at 4pm, and I have to go to work now. You have to go outside until Little Boss comes home. She won't be long."
Confusion and unhappiness remained unabated.
"I have to earn money to buy food to put on the, err, in the bowls," I reasoned. Scratchy gave an exasperated sigh and moved away to find a sunny spot to sleep in. But Daisy clung to hope and to me. She pressed her face into my thigh and cried softly and looked up at me with pleading eyes. "Don't go. Oh please don't go," her eyes said.
The following day, the dogs woke more slowly and were more reluctant to go outside. By the third day, they refused to move.
"Outside," I repeated, lowering my voice and hardening my tone. No response. "Please." No movement. "Outside, now!" I barked. Scratchy tightened his grip on the sofa cushion. Daisy started to tremble.
Training dogs takes time and not a little skill, and it helps if you don't try to teach them new routines three minutes before your train leaves from a train station which can be reached in three and a half minutes if you run hard.
Six weeks later, however, and our new routine has been established. When I start preparing for work each mid-afternoon, Daisy now wakes and moves outside without being asked. Scratchy prefers to come into the bedroom and witness all the preparation activities, perhaps hoping I will produce a bone from the underwear drawer, before he too quietly joins Daisy in the back yard.
It's a relief, but now I have a new problem. The job is a temporary one and in four weeks I will be back working from home all day. I just don't know how to tell them that the routine will be changing yet again.
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