Rosie's getting old and cranky

For those of you who haven’t read my missives about my dogs, Rosie is my soon to be 14 year old Lhasa Apso. Until about a year ago, she was just as sweet as could be. But now, like many old people, she’s getting crankier by the day.

To give you some background, last year we had to change groomers because Rosie was put on “probation” by her old groomer for pooping and peeing on the table then nipping at the groomer. She never did that before and I wrote it off to the new inexperienced groomers they were hiring. Anyway, the new groomer knows how to deal with sensitive older dogs and Rosie has mostly tolerated them and even enjoys her pampering every 3 weeks there.

Rosie is also the one whose snores sound like a phantom jet roaring through the room. Pound for pound she can out snore anything on the planet.

She also doesn’t like stairs. She quit going down the deck stairs a couple of years ago - too high, steep and slippery for her (she only likes concrete or carpeted steps with low risers now). Since the doggie door goes out to the deck this was a problem at first because she was using the deck as her bathroom. But I love her so I keep tissues to pick up the poop and a garden spray bottle close by full of simple green and water to wash everything away .

Then she decided she doesn’t want to get wet anymore, so she started going next to the doggie door – INSIDE! So, 2 rugs later, I have a waterproof tarp with newspapers available for her convenience. The papers are changed and tarps are cleaned everyday and the tarps are replaced every month or so. I’m a smell fanatic, so we keep it very clean.

Her dislike for stairs has now taken a new turn. Since her recent episode of sliding down the stairs and little encounter with the paint tray in which she became known as “Rosie the red assed dog”, she refuses to go down the stairs anymore. She will go up them, but she won’t go down.

So, picture this; our bedroom and family room where we spend the majority of our time is downstairs. I have set up a spot in the laundry room with a pooch pad and some water and food for her convenience (YES, she IS spoiled). However she still prefers her papers, deck and food and water from the kitchen – upstairs. So she climbs the stairs – which with her short and stiff little legs is quite a process – and does her thing upstairs, then she sits at the top of the stairs and barks until I come CARRY her back downstairs.

If I’m not home, she doesn’t really care and just goes and sleeps under the red chair in the guest bedroom – her favorite snoozing spot upstairs. However, when I’m home she wants to be near me and she likes to sleep with me so she can occasionally wake me up with her snoring.

Last night she barked me awake. This means I’m supposed to put her on the floor so she can go do her thing. It was about 3 in the morning and after I put her down, I decided to hold my ground and just go back to sleep and let her bark. She barked from the top of the stairs and I ignored her until I finally went back to sleep.

This morning when I went upstairs to the kitchen to eat breakfast, fix my lunch, give the girls fresh food and water and change the papers and clean the tarp, Rosie had managed to express her displeasure with me for ignoring her barks. She peed and pooped all over part of the kitchen floor – RIGHT NEXT TO THE TARP!

I had to clean and sanitize the whole thing in my work clothes and heels. Mommy was not happy! Rosie made her point. I found her snoozing under the red chair and gave her medicine and a small treat. No use punishing her. Dog only knows what she might do then.

Now I understand why they call female dogs bitches.