abe is bad to the bone

I love Abe. He is the greatest, until he isn't. He is the cutest, sweetest, friendliest dog until he decides that he isn't getting what he wants and then he isn't.

*Now I want to preface this story with I don't believe Abe is a bad dog. He isn't spiteful (despite his stubborn style) and that the following story is the effect to a lot of cause building up over the past month.




Abe is really well behaved, generally speaking. We have done all of his training on our own, no classes. We socialize him, potty train/housebreak him and most days are great. He has grown up on the top floor of a high rise apartment building so potty training and housebreaking isn't his best subject. He knows that he gets taken out at certain times and we know that he goes at certain times. It's a schedule and we've gotten lazy(ish) in his good behavior. His schedule has relaxed and his freedom has increased. We should have seen the signs.

After rearranging the furniture in our living room (ie. our whole house lol) Abe was anxious. This is normal and I was expecting it. He also gets anxious when I do severe cleaning and organizing. Moving stuff around is NOT his favorite thing in the world and that reaction is a dog thing. I understand. It just so happened to be the final straw for Abe. That evening Abe decided as we climbed into bed at 9PM that he was going to express his displeasure with his "oh so horrible life". He climbed up in bed as James and I tucked ourselves in and peed, followed by quickly scampering back off the bed and out into the living room. Clearly he was NOT happy with how easily we were adjusting to our new surroundings.

It seemed spiteful at the time but it was his natural reaction to the large amount of freedom and change happening. James and I have been busy on the weekends which resulted in Abe not getting his dedicated cuddle time. He is mostly French Bulldog and a very clingy breed. He was unhappy. Needless to say I screamed a couple cuss words and swore if he did it again I'd start crating him overnight again. Fast forward to the next night....

Yea, you guessed it. Abe now sleeps in his crate at night. He was telling us he was unhappy and we listened. We have cut back on his freedom and given him dedicated love time. We were always home but our attention was elsewhere and this was simply unacceptable for him. haha

We love our Abe-rton and believe me, he has an easy life, but sometimes you just have to know your pet. Get past the bad behavior and to the root of the problem. Regardless, Abe will always be BAD TO THE BONE, dun nunna nuhnuh. ;)

xoxohannah




Check out other great BAD TO THE BONE stories: