Day 10:  Mikey Says "Bad Human! Bad! Bad!"

I came home from work last night to find an accident on the floor: robert AND moses!  I didn’t react, just cleaned it up and took Mikey out.  I feel terrible because I keep getting the timing off!  Poor Mikey must have held it in as long as he could.  Maybe I need to move his midday walk later to coincide with his need to go to the bathroom.  Right now the dog walker comes in early afternoon, between 12 and 2.  But I’ll ask him to walk Mikey at 3 or later.

 

No robert or moses on his post- work walk, which I expected, because he was empty!  He ate all his dinner, good boy.  Then no robert or moses on his late evening walk either. 

 

This morning Mikey woke us up by rattling around in his crate, so I let him out of his crate and started to get stuff together for his early-morning walk: leash, moses bag, treats.  I come into the dining room to find Mikey in a squat.  He had a robert accident! Poor guy, if he held it for 2 more seconds we’d have been outside! 

 

On the walk, he did his moses pretty quickly.  Good thing, because it was raining.  As far as I can tell, Mikey is NOT a fan of the rain.

 

Blog readers, I need your help!  Is there any way I can help Mikey so he doesn’t have to hold it in until he’s bursting?  It’s not his fault I’m a first- time dog owner.  He shouldn’t have to be the dog I learn this stuff on.  Poor little guy. He has every right to be mad at me, and, I don't know, attack us or something.  But how?  Dogs have no weapons.

Or do they?

 My current approach:  He gets food and water between 7:30 and 8 am, and then the bowls are taken away.  He gets a half- hour walk between 12-2. Then, a 6:15 pm walk.  Then food and water around 7 pm, and we always take his bowls away around 8:30-8:45 pm.  Then one more walk just before bedtime.  He doesn’t have a water bowl available to him during the day.  We reward him with gold- level treats (tiny bits of hot dog, cheddar, or roast beef) every time he roberts or moses outside.  We croon “good robert moses!” over and over, despite odd looks from passers-by.

 

For the most part, this has been working over the last 11 days, but 2 accidents in 2 days has me worried.  One more accident, and maybe it’s time to call the vet?  I hate to be a hypochondriac- by- proxy but that’s better than making Mikey sick!

Probably ought to have the vet check out his googly eyes, too.

 Well, Mikey ate most of his breakfast today.  This is great news.  Maybe he’ll start putting on some weight!

(Later) I contacted Csaba the dog walker and we agreed to move his midday walk to ~3 pm, starting this Monday. I'll keep you posted.