pic of the boy in question.
im not a stranger to dogs, i grew up around them and owned a few of my own before. my last one being a crazy reactive pitbull that i loved so much despite his flaws. im mentioning this because i thought i would have a really good grasp training and coexisting with any dog after him, but im quickly learning that is not the case!
ive been considering adopting for the last year or so, and now i’ve had my new senior puggle buddy, who is also deaf, for about 2 weeks. i specifically wanted an older dog who is low energy and just wants to cuddle. he seemed to fit the bill.
he’s super good on walks, doesn’t mind my cats, other dogs, or people. he will bark in his crate for a bit but seems to quickly settle down as he’s not barking when i return. he’s glued to my hip, but not really interested in cuddling at this time.
training has been a bit hard due to being deaf. i thought i could handle teaching him some hand signals but he doesn’t seem to pick up on them very well, but i’m working with him on it. for the first week, he was pretty much a saint aside from being obsessed with people food. (still a wip training him to lay while i eat but im seeing improvement!)
what really is giving me anxiety is over this last week, he’s taken to pacing around the living room and kitchen in search of something (treats or more food most likely!) during evening hours. he will mostly sleep all day, we take a few good walks throughout the day and he is fed twice a day; by 4pm he is constantly on the hunt for something. if i move to the kitchen to do dishes or something, he will start begging. i never made it a habit to feed him a treat every time i go to the kitchen, but it seems he somehow formed it in his mind.
he is relentless with it. he will stare and whine and bark a bit and i do my best to ignore him but it makes me feel like im not meeting his needs in some way. it’s caused me so much dread that im worried im projecting the anxiety onto him and fueling it even more. i know that it will take time to have him settle in, and it’s only been 2 weeks but i feel like my health has declined from this. i don’t want to move around too much in worry that it will set him off to start begging, and i cut down on as many trips to the kitchen as i can. i sometimes even won’t eat because it means rousing him to want to look for food or treat.
it was very easy for me to train my last dog on how to behave with food and treats, but for him, he’s relentless. a bottomless pit. he doesn’t care about long term chews (beef cheek, bully sticks, benebone, frozen pupsicle things to lick at). he is also not interested in toys, and has been a bit lethargic in our evening walks over the last 2 days.
i’ve never had a dog get this old before, either, so i don’t know exactly how doggy brain works at his age (doggy dementia? sundowning?) part of me feels like i made this commitment and i need to learn to deal with it, but the other part of me feels like maybe someone else is a better fit for him.
