Sugar Monday - Sleepless Edition:
The last I don't even know how many days weeks, Sugar has been keeping us up at night. At first, I was convinced she was just being an ass: playing this "I just want in the bed with you" game. But then she had a few nights were she was clearly terrified of something. We're guessing a noise she's hearing from inside our neighbor's wall (best educated guess: air in the pipes making that vibrating/grinding sound). But then the terrified behavior stopped and the standard begging started up again.
Consequently, Rhonda and I have been getting very, VERY little sleep. For instance, two nights ago we were up with her from 2:00 - 6:00 in the morning. Until I nearly broke down in tears from frustration. So Rhonda (angel that she is) drug Sugar into the guest room for a whole hour of sleep in the guest bed.
We've tried everything from being firm with her, to being compassionate, to locking her out of our room, to making her a tempurpedic dog bed (Sugar has bad hip problems and we were worried she was too uncomfortable to sleep on her normal dog bed). Nothing has changed her willful desire to paw at us all night long. We even drugged Sugar with a good dose of Benadryl with the intention of getting just ONE full night of sleep. Turns out? Benadryl has absolutely no affect on our dog. Her will to wake us is far stronger than the power of antihistamines. If I'd known she harbored that kind of will when we adopted her, I'd have found a way to put her through law school. And then maybe Sugar could have brought home the bacon for a change.
Did someone say "bacon?"
Finally, we came to the decision that perhaps we should crate her downstairs for a night. Initially we were worried that crating her if she was genuinely afraid of something, might give her more of a complex than she already displays. But after so many weeks of broken and very little sleep, it was the only option we had left outside of packing her bags and dumping her at a friends house for a few nights.
LO. AND. BEHOLD. It worked. We got a full night of sleep. All three of us. And I'm feeling that pretty soon I'll be able to stop resenting Sugar and maybe even start liking her again.
Consequently, Rhonda and I have been getting very, VERY little sleep. For instance, two nights ago we were up with her from 2:00 - 6:00 in the morning. Until I nearly broke down in tears from frustration. So Rhonda (angel that she is) drug Sugar into the guest room for a whole hour of sleep in the guest bed.
We've tried everything from being firm with her, to being compassionate, to locking her out of our room, to making her a tempurpedic dog bed (Sugar has bad hip problems and we were worried she was too uncomfortable to sleep on her normal dog bed). Nothing has changed her willful desire to paw at us all night long. We even drugged Sugar with a good dose of Benadryl with the intention of getting just ONE full night of sleep. Turns out? Benadryl has absolutely no affect on our dog. Her will to wake us is far stronger than the power of antihistamines. If I'd known she harbored that kind of will when we adopted her, I'd have found a way to put her through law school. And then maybe Sugar could have brought home the bacon for a change.
Did someone say "bacon?"
Finally, we came to the decision that perhaps we should crate her downstairs for a night. Initially we were worried that crating her if she was genuinely afraid of something, might give her more of a complex than she already displays. But after so many weeks of broken and very little sleep, it was the only option we had left outside of packing her bags and dumping her at a friends house for a few nights.
LO. AND. BEHOLD. It worked. We got a full night of sleep. All three of us. And I'm feeling that pretty soon I'll be able to stop resenting Sugar and maybe even start liking her again.