A Pain in the Dash

Dogs are just like your kids...until you have kids and you want to put your pets down because they become an annoyance.  Horrible, but true.

We love our dog, Dash.  He's dumb, but lovable, and truth be told, he's actually very smart (he's a Border).  He just does dumb things.  And one of the dumb things he's doing at the moment is taking away my sleep, which is more precious to me than anything outside of Avery.

We get up at 5:30am every morning and that's when I throw on shoes and take Dash for a walk.  Over the last month or so, Dash has been anticipating this and has decided that at 4:30am, he'll start getting ready for his walk by pacing in our bedroom, trying to jump up on the bed, and giving me the occasional snout-push, in case I feel inclined to wake up early.  This signals the cats that maybe it's time for them to change position, so they rotate around my head, being sure to purr extra loud (they think it's cute).  So, that means, while I don't physically leave my bed at 4:30, both Jon and I are up at 4:30 in the morning and can't get back to sleep.

We can't shut the door and just lock Dash out of our room because Harley, the cat will meow at the door for 8 hours straight, no matter which side she's on.  Grass is always greener to her, and she refuses to be locked out of anything.

"Don't you dare lock the door on me"

So, we tried putting Dash in the living room behind the metal babygates.  No dice.  He wakes up, whines, and paws the gate.  Sometimes that doesn't wake me up, but it will wake Jon up, who then decides to go to the bathroom, which wakes me up.  Sometimes, everyone's involved as I'll hear a random "Uh-Oh!" coming from the nursery, which thankfully is just Avery waking up to say something and falling back asleep.  Last night was especially painful, as I had a bad dream, then I heard whining and pawing.  Jon gets up to physically take Dash outside to the bathroom, in case he had an emergency.  He went, came back in, and wanted to play some more.

So, tonight, we are letting Dash roam the house again.  A 4:30am wakeup call was better than the sound of paws clanking the babygates.  Eventually, we are going to put him in the laundry room overnight.  Don't worry, it's plenty warm, his bed and food will be there, but most importantly, it's TWO floors below us where he can't be heard....I hope.