Fitz is spoiled, he better enjoy it, i’m sure things will change once the baby comes! But over the past 9 months that we’ve had Fitz he has been spoiled almost constantly. The difference is that now he’s comfortable here and I think he’s starting to take advantage 🙂
Case in point: The couch. At first there was a definite no couch rule. Then occasionally Ryan would pull him up onto his lap for some petting. Then it was my turn and I dragged him up once or twice when Ryan was working late and I wanted some company. Finally last week after daycare he was whining (he wants to go up to his good bed when he’s tired) so I put his blanket (one of many) on the couch and ‘coaxed’ him up. It didnt’ take long and now he’s comfortable jumping right up if invited (although he does sit for you first if you’re inviting him to make sure you want him). So now he’s taking up 1/3 of the couch some nights between Ryan and I. Oh boy!
Second point: Daycare. It started to get him socialized (or keep him that way anyway) and he got agility class at the same place. But I never knew how he was behaving at that daycare, couldn’t tell if he liked it (he just whined when we got there and when we left – I have no idea what that means). So I found a nicer daycare (aka. more expensive) that he LOVEs (and I love because I can see how he is during the day – they send pictures) and I can spy on him when I drop him off/pick him up. He is much less whiny (I told them when he whines he needs a break and I suspect they are giving him breaks to relax), and he still sleeps the whole next day without bothering me (bonus for me!). Daycare once a week seems to be the key – again, once the baby comes this will stop (at least during my maternity leave – because the daycare is halfway to work).
Third point: Walks. We’ve always taken long walks with him, but when we got him it was spring/summer. As the weather got cooler (actually when I got pregnant) – walks got harder for me (I got sick after about a mile). So he got shorter walks but almost every day he got to walk at least to the nearby park to mark all the trees. There are days he doesn’t get to go and that happens more and more (freezing cold out/snowing/raining). But even on days when I don’t want to walk far, I usually put him on the lead and we play ball for 10 minutes or so. And lately I’ve resumed the walks even in the COLD weather because it’s good exercise for us both. He loves the snow – so he got 20 minutes in the snow with his ball today which means I have to stay outside with him because if I go inside, he just sits and waits for me (and starts shaking if it’s cold out). So again – spoiled.
That’s Fitz’s life. I think it’s a drastic improvement over his life before he came to us as a stray. We know we spoil him but he had 4+ years of who knows what so a year of spoiling is deserved – once the baby comes he’ll probably get a little less attention but hopefully he knows we love him (best dog in the world) 🙂