I enjoyed much of my Labor Day weekend, but not all of it. Saturday was nice, but on Sunday Ozzie developed a fear of the back of our building. Apparently there was evil outside our back door and he would bark himself into a frenzy over it. He’s usually a silent dog, so it was very odd and frustrating that for my long weekend he suddenly turned into one of those non-stop barking dogs. He would pace the whole apartment, focused on the back door, sounding his alarm.
When it happened on Sunday, and again on Monday, I did a lot of whispering (“Ozzie, quiet”) and pushing down on his snout because I understand wolves quiet their puppies that way. Usually that works, but when it didn’t, I put his Thundershirt on him and gave him Bach flower remedies for fear and nervousness. He still kept barking and prowling the apartment. I turned on his (Bob’s) favorite radio station and did some Emotional Freedom Technique tapping with him. The EFT tapping got him the quietest and calmest, but he stayed on edge. On neither day did he completely calm down until Bob came home around 8:00 p.m. (of course the restaurant is open on Labor Day). So on my lovely three-day weekend it was me and a freaked out, annoying dog.
What occurred to me on Tuesday as I left for work, is that last week Bob boiled plain fish and then left the fish water on the stove in the pot. Over the weekend I opened it and saw that mold was starting to grow. I was so grossed out that I told Bob to please wash it out because I couldn’t stand to look at that pot, knowing what was inside. What did Bob do? He put the pot outside the back door until he could get to it! I couldn’t believe it. In this humid weather, he thought that was better??
On Tuesday I said, “Hey, maybe what Ozzie’s freaked out about is that pot you left growing on the back porch. It’s been out there about the same number of days.”
Bob dismissed this idea.
I said, “I’m about to tell you to throw it out and I’ll buy a new one.”
“I’ll take care of it today,” he said. And THANK GOD he finally did. Guess what? Ozzie’s been fine since then.
I wish I’d made that connection sooner. Of course, I could be wrong and Ozzie could go back to barking all day on my next day off. If he does, I swear I’m hiring a dog psychic.
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| 3 Sept 2012. Ozzie was peaceful here because he was in the car, not our apartment. |