Does anyone have a routine with your dogs ?

We have several rituals but here are two. At night, I will usually go to bed first to read. Huck will come lazily down the hall (clickety clack, clickety clack), get on the bed and stare at me. I will then lift the covers and he will do a u-turn type of move and roots under. He will then lay lengthwise as close beside me as humanly (or bassetly) possible with his fanny pointing at me. For the life of me I can't get him to turn around - it's gotta be that way.

The other ritual is in the morning and involves both the dogs. Anywhere from 6 to 7 AM, Grace, who is 80 lbs. now, will start jumping on the bed and then off the bed - on the bed then off the bed - on the bed then off the bed. She will then bang anything in the room with her big 2x4 of a tail making so much racket until I just can't stand it anymore. It's usually about this time that Huck starts flinging off the covers and "pops" out from under. I'll get up and they race to the kitchen where they both sit real pretty staring at the cookie jar. They both get their morning cookie and then they race to the front door to be let out. It doesn't matter that we have a doggie door in the kitchen OR that we leave the sliding glass door open in our bedroom (old folks like it cooler when they sleep ya' know). And then when I open the front door they streak out the door growling and barking like Jack the Ripper is standing on our front porch. Don't know why, there's never anyone there.

They've got me pretty well trained, don't ya' think? :lol:

After dinner Moe likes to play a quick game of 'fetch'. He's good for exactly two fetches before he quits. Then he needs some lap-time (mine, of course!). After he's gotten his daily ration of loving he sort of slides off my lap and settles onto his dog-bed for the night. The dogbed is the best thing that came from his bout with the infected cyst. He couldn't jump onto the couch wearing that cone-collar so, for the first time in his life, he began sleeping on a DOGbed. When the collar came off the habit of using the bed stuck. My furniture just might stay dog-hair-free this summer!!!!

After dinner Tally curls up for a nap on the loveseat amd stays there until the last person heads up to bed for the night. Whoever that is has to first get a little piece of fat-free american cheese, then carry her up the stairs (stairs she is fully capable of climbing alone at any other time), put her in my daughter's room, then give her the cheese. Then Tally rummages about in her toy basket for her favorite squeaky and hops up on my daughter's bed, where she'll 'squeak' till she falls asleep (or until my daughter takes the toy away, in which case she will crawl to the foot of the bed and sulk quietly till she falls asleep).

Terry

Originally posted by Lynne & Huck
 I will then lift the covers and he will do a u-turn type of move and roots under.  He will then lay lengthwise as close beside me as humanly (or bassetly) possible with his fanny pointing at me.  For the life of me I can't get him to turn around  - it's gotta be that way.

Click to expand...

Daisy Jayne is the same way, about burrowing under the covers. She usually goes down as far as my knees or ankles, which is nice, I have chronically cold feet and she doesn't mind or complain about them at all.

When it's time for bed, she gets up on the bed and lays down with her head on DH's pillow. When DH comes to bed, she looks at him like, "Where you gonna sleep, Dad?" He moves her over to the center of the bed, where she generally puts her head on his shoulder or pillow, her bottom against me, (depends on whether she's being "daddy's girl" or "mama's girl") and goes to sleep. She even likes to be covered up with just her head and neck sticking out.

We just got the youngest kid out of our bed and now we have the hound in bed with us, LOL. I reminded DH last night that this was all his fault, which he vehemently denied, but it really is his fault.

Daisy's other ritual is this: if she wakes up in the middle of the night to go potty, when we come back in the house, she won't hop up on the bed on her own. She will always come to my side of the bed and whine; when I say, "come up", she'll go to DH's side of the bed and wait patiently for me to come lift her up, but it has to be in that exact spot. Nowhere else will do, and she won't jump up on her own if DH is in bed. :roll: Good thing she's a relatively small basset hound.

George won't go out in the mornings until he's had a specified number of treats -- and he keeps that number secret and it changes daily, so I never know how many it'll take before he's willing to go outside. Then it's time for his nap. I usually come home for lunch so he goes out again (usually without treats) and then it's time for his afternoon nap. He goes to bed at night promptly at 10. When I come home from work, I usually have to spend at least a few minutes, sometimes longer, loving on him so he can assure me he's missed me TERRIBLY while I've been at work (between his naps, I assume).

When the alarm rings in the morning, that's his signal to come in the bedroom (if he slept on the couch -- lately he's been sleeping in the bedroom on the rug at the foot of the bed) and make sure I don't hit the snooze too many times. I don't think he's afraid I won't get to work on time. He just wants his morning treats. However, if he didn't do that, I probably WOULD oversleep more often than not by hitting the snooze repeatedly, but when a 50 pound basset is bouncing off the side of the bed and making a fuss, you have to get up.