Testing our patience...

We have a 2 year old Great Dane, named Ruff.

Ruff was my baby before I had a baby.  Though Brendon's never really had a strong attachment/connection with the dog, I certainly have.  We had completely different childhoods.  My family always had a dog in the house, they were part of our family.  Our Rottweiler passed away in 2009 at the age of 8 years old, from bone cancer and our miniature Dachshund also passed away in 2009 at the age of 17, because we felt he no longer had any quality of life and put him down (he was deaf, blind and my parents were moving to a new house as well, my brother was leaving to go to Australia for 6 months and wanted him to be able to say goodbye).  Not only were they our family members, they were my best friends!  I LOVE dogs.  Brendon however, grew up on a farm.  Dogs lived outside.  When the dog got ill, or heck! if you no longer wanted it, you went out back and shot it.  So you can see how I have much more of an attachment to our dog then he does.

Typically I'd rave about how good of a dog he is.  He is so laid back and calm.  They (google) refers to Great Danes as being gentle giants, he certainly is!  He has been great with Beckham since we've brought him home.  He typically is a great dog.  Aside from drooling all over our carpet, walls and furniture and shedding like you've never seen before.  I rarely complain about him.  But this has changed...

I should start by saying that since he was a puppy, we trained him to not go in the kitchen.  A dog that stands 4 1/4 feet tall does not need to be in the kitchen.  When we moved into our new house, though it was a new kitchen, he just knew he wasn't allowed in it.  But that all changed last week...

For months we were no longer kenneling him when we would leave the house for the day.  I felt he had grown up and wouldn't get into anything.  He would occasionally go into the baby's room and take out all the stuffies from his room, and sofie the giraffe and scatter them around the house but that was it.  Young Ruff would have chewed those items, not just taken them out of his room.  I left chicken on the kitchen counter last week and I guess that day Ruff decided he was going to go counter surfing, yes he ate the chicken and the baby's pacifier that day.  The next day we went to bed and woke up to the reminence of a plastic bag, Ruff had ate 3 chocolate donuts and most of the plastic bag they were in while we were sleeping.  The following day (yesterday) he ate an avocado and the majority of the avocado pit (which is like a stone) this was while I was home, but was upstairs feeding the baby. This morning we were awoken at 6am by Ruff puking.  Ruff puked out a bottle nipple, whole, and part of the plastic bag that he ate a few nights ago.  I also noticed that the other two bottle nipples were missing off the counter, so i'll be waiting for him to either puke those out or poop them out.  Tonight while I was upstairs putting the baby to bed Ruff ate an onion...like seriously an onion, well part of it!  (Yes I know onions are poisonous to dogs, but trust me he'd need to eat 10 before it affected him because of his size).  This dog is really testing my patience and obviously Brendon has had it with him and I'm sure would gladly get rid of him.  But to me, he's our family member.  Although I can't stand the drool, the dog hair, the inconvienance of having to walk him every time he has to go to the bathroom (because currently we have a mud pitt for a yard because its not developed yet). As much as he ruins our brand new house and brand new furniture.  As much as I've had it with him getting into absolutely everything. When we bought him as a pup we made a commitment to him that in my eyes come hell or high water, he will always be with us.  There have been so many times this dog has tested my patience, but heck!  My children will do the same, and I won't be getting rid of them.  Needless to say the dog is back to being kenneled when we aren't home and it seems like he could stand to be kenneled while we are home, but obviously we wouldn't do that to him.  I sure hope he smartens up quick! ...I just heard him going down the stairs so I quickly ran to see what he was up to, and oh yes as I'm writing this my dog went into the kitchen and was counter surfing.  Finally I caught him in the act and could lecture him for it!

xo
A