All has been going very well with Sam since I stopped doing the daily update.
He’s been getting back on a regular routine with the other dogs, and has stopped having potty emergencies in the house. He’s actually asking to be let out when he needs to go, so the 4 times out per day rule is out the door. He’s also been going up the stairs with more improvement these past few days, actually able to support himself better in the jumping up the stairs, although his back legs are still weak at times.
His walking gait has improved somewhat, although if he gets in a hurry, the right back leg goes a little wacky and we have to slow him down so he gets some control over it. Going down the stairs is still problematic, as he still insists on leaping down all three stairs, which we’re not keen about at all. We’re trying to slow him down with the leash to get him to actually walk down the stairs, not spring and leap down them. While he’s allowed to go up the stairs whenever he goes out, due to his leaping down style, we only allow him one or two down the stairs per day as we don’t want him to jar his back.
On friday I let Meeshka downstairs for a quick visit. Loki was outside, and I felt more confident with handling two dogs instead of three should they get a little out of hand. They did the obligatory sniff greeting, and then once Meeshka figured out that I didn’t have any food to give her, she decided to play with Sam. Sam wanted to play too, and I allowed them a few chest bumps and posturing, but when they decided they wanted to do full tilt wrestling, I called a stop to it and sent Meeshka back upstairs. The last thing I needed was a misplaced claw on a bare back and injury.
Today we carried Sam upstairs and gated him off in the upstairs computer room with hubby. Since he mainly lounges around most of the day downstairs with me, we figured we’d give him a change of pace upstairs, be with all of us, and give the pups some sniffing opportunities while he’s up here. For the most part... they’ve totally ignored him. Oh, its Sam, hey, how’s it going, I’m going to go nap now. That’s been about it as far as dog/dog interaction goes. I’m also upstairs with everyone, and I figured that they would be thrilled to have me up here with them... well, they’re sleeping in their usual spots, where they’ve slept since I’ve been spending time downstairs. So, all that worrying about them being separated from me, and not having anything to do... yeah, they’re now in a nap mode routine and probably didn’t even care that I was downstairs all this time.
I’m glad to see that they’re as mellow as usual, that having Sam up here (even though he’s double gated away from them) isn’t a big deal, and hopefully we’ll be getting back into the usual routine of things once Sam has gotten his strength back and can navigate the stairs by himself.
