November 16, 2013

Note: If you’ve been reading any of these past posts, you might have realized by now that taking care of A.J. is exhausting. He needs a ton of exercise, but because of his leash aggression issues every walk is a huge and stressful chore. So on this day, I decided to take the day off from being A.J.’s dog mom. This is how it went:

We woke up to snow covering the ground. It turns out A.J. loves the snow. He went outside and sniffed around the edge of the snow on the patio, then the next thing I know he’s tearing around the yard. He dug his Kong out of the snow and ran around the yard with it in his mouth.

I did some volunteer work in the morning, so I fed A.J. early and left. Greg stayed home, and told me later A.J. was pretty needy and demanding all morning. I got home around lunchtime and A.J. was more than ready to get out. I mentioned that I needed a day off and Greg said “I’ll take him out.” I really did want a day off, so I said “Okay.” I got A.J. all harnessed and leashed, and he and Greg left.

There was still snow everywhere, and it had started raining, so they were only gone about 20 minutes or so. When they came in A.J. was crazy because Greg had partially dried him off in the garage. Greg said they didn’t run, but A.J. did a lot of snuffling in the snow and playing with the snow. A.J. calmed down after about 10 or 15 minutes, so I was able to eat lunch and then get some work done around the house. While they were on their walk I had taken a short nap on the couch; I really was tired.

I fed A.J. a little early so we could go out to dinner. He went out after eating, and I picked up everything around the house I could think of and made sure it was all out of A.J.’s reach. Greg closed and locked the door to his office. When A.J. came back in he was all hyped up again. I thought I got him calmed before we left for dinner; I was wrong.

We were gone for a little less than an hour. When we came back, dishes that had been drying on the counter were scattered, including a knife that had wound up near the edge. There was a plastic cooking spoon in middle of the floor – completely chewed up.

Greg has been angry since we got home. He’s basically ignoring A.J. and me.

So from now on I need to stop being so lazy and do the dishes right after dinner, including towel-drying them and putting them away.

And I have to stop taking days off.

A.J. really wasn’t the right dog for me. I don’t have the energy for this. But I need to find the energy, because he’s my dog and he needs me.