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Magic or Tragic

Magic or Tragic

Magic or Tragic

When I trained dogs, I had a lovely client with an equally sweet dog who jokingly told me once that her dog’s behavior was either magical or tragic. That’s where my perfect-for-me Gavin is right now.

Every morning, I’m so appreciative that we have a beautiful, stress-free rhythm to his pill-eating routine, especially now that he’s on 44 (not a typo) pills daily, and his walks are dreamy. However, we had a horrific virtual training session Monday night that led him to be a derpy, anxious, book-eating, carpet-licking mess at my mom’s house on Tuesday.

We had such a smooth sailing kitchen day, making 497 pouches. Even with one broken sous vide, we flowed well, and the long and busy day wasn’t exhausting. When I arrived at my mom’s house, she was on the phone, Gavin was acting weird, and both bedroom doors were closed. I knew something was up. 

She began telling me how badly his belly gurgled, how he was hellbent on eating anything he could get to, and how he drooled all day. I knew it was a delayed stress response to my previous night’s virtually supervised timed absences. The Gavin we all know and love was back the instant he and I arrived home, and he was a perfect gentleman when we went to a new hair salon. I’m still unbelievably grateful that the owner, who’d never met me, agreed to let me bring my dog to get a long overdue haircut (due to said dog) after I went into the shortest diatribe I could about how much he loves people and how he can’t be alone right now.

Thankfully, my mom won’t give up on us, and my primary veterinarian talked me through some medication calibration that’s helped Gavin have two good, easy, lovely last couple of days at my mom’s and boyfriend’s houses. We’ll be talking with a new separation anxiety trainer this afternoon, the one my gut told me I should have contacted initially. Why did I ignore my gut? And I plan to get on the books with a behaviorist after the new year.

We’ll eventually get there, me and my money pit, as I love to call him. May your day and weekend be filled with as much magic as possible.