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| Wednesday, December 19, 2007 04:27 PM |
| Floyd Update |
 by Fëanor |
For all those who are bored by all the comic book content, here's a post that will bore anyone not interested in dogs!
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When we first got him our greyhound Floyd took an extended tour of our entire condo, and he seemed to roam the place pretty much at will, to the extent that we actually blocked off the spiral staircase for fear he might try to climb it and end up falling. But it wasn't long before the area of the building that he inhabited began to shrink until it consisted mainly of two rooms and a small piece of hallway. He wasn't even going out to eat, which is why we had to move his food and water bowls. We're really not sure what caused this behavior, but we've come up with a lot of different possibilities, including everything from the fact that greyhounds prefer enclosed spaces, to the contradictory idea that Floyd doesn't seem to like narrow passageways. Maybe he didn't like the way we'd rearranged the furniture. Maybe he doesn't like walking on areas of exposed hardwood floor (which you have to do to get to the living room). We tried to train him to do a lot of things he didn't want to do in the living room, so maybe he started to associate the room with those things. Whatever the reason, Floyd just wasn't going into most of the house. It made us a bit sad, because he wouldn't hang out with us when we were in the living room, but he seemed happy enough, and we don't like trying to force him to do things he doesn't want to do, so we let it lie.
But starting about a month ago, Floyd began following us further down the hallway toward the living room than he had in a long time, and one night we decided to see if we could get him all the way in by plying him with treats - and it worked! We brought in a blanket for him to lay on, and he actually laid down! And as time has gone on since then, thanks to lots of encouragement and the occasional treat, he's been coming in more and more often, sometimes of his own accord, and even laying in there with us for long periods of time.
It may not seem like all that big a deal that our dog is now making use of an extra room and hallway in our house, but for a neurotic animal like Floyd, it feels like a pretty big breakthrough to us. |
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