Originally Posted by Sunnydayz  My dog is not really good all the time, but I am teaching him that I am the boss, and I make the rules. He's only 4 months old, so we are just into all the training stuff, and will be training for quite some time to come. Right now I'm working on training him to a schedule that works for him as well as myself.
When I first rescued Gizmo 8 maybe 9 weeks ago, he was extremely sick, but he's well now. But the first thing I did was contact a friend I have that's near me and also has a yorkie, she's actually had many of them, and I asked her if in the future, if I needed a break if she would take him for a day, here and there. That was very important to me to make sure I had someone ready, if needed.
Over the last 4 1/2 years, I've had about 7 or 8 surgeries for things caused from my spinal cord damage, and have been in the hospital approx 15 or more times from going septic from infections also due to my paralysis. I too live in a large city, one of the biggest since I'm right outside of downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes being in a big city can be helpful as there are more resources available.
I do hope your back feels better soon, but if I were you, I would just let your dog know that sometimes you are not able to play as much as you would like. The one thing about dogs, is they do adjust to what you ask of them. Like I said, with Gizmo, we are just in the training phase as he is young, but he is learning that I am the boss, and he has to listen to my commands for him. He has no choice :-) just be really consistent with putting him down for naps in an xpen or crate, and he will eventually get it. I have put Gizmo in his xpen for naps between playtime every day since I started training, and he now knows if I put him in there during the day, it's nap time and he goes to his bed now, without me having to tell him, and takes a nap. Think about people in wheelchairs that have service dogs, they obviously are not playing all day, and do what needs to be done to meet the disabled persons needs, because they are trained that way. I eventually am going to get gizmo certified as my service dog, along with the training he requires, since I am permanently disabled and my paralysis will progress as time goes on, it already has in the last four and a half years since I became this way. You shouldn't feel bad about not playing when you can't, because is you don't take care of yourself, who will take care of your dog is something happens to you, like if you end up in the hospital. It's really important to have someone that can be there in an emergency, that was why I asked my friend to begin with, so I knew I had a backup plan if needed for a break, or if I have to go the hospital or anything. Do you have a friend you can trust? I would definitely think about the what ifs, ad make sure you have a person who can help you out occasionally. |