Brutus Is Having The "Dad Is Gone" Blues

Ugh! Let me repeat that. Ugh!! Three weeks ago, I thought I had the dog by the tail, literally. Brutus and I had come to this great understanding, and I was finally able to leave him off leash without worrying about him wandering. He even knocked on the door before going in the back yard. It was GREAT!! Boy has life changed.

Don was here for the last two and a half weeks for his summer vacation, which was wonderful, but that also meant that Brutus got to spend the majority of his day down by the lake, or going over to our neighbor Bennie's, or chasing the four wheeler down the road, or fishing on the boat. He played and played and played. Now he seems to have it in his head that even though Dad is no longer here, he can still do all of those things, and it isn't funny.

I let him out this morning, and went in the kitchen to make breakfast. When I went to check on him a few minutes later, he was gone. And I mean gone. He didn't come back for thirty minutes, no matter how much calling I did. I finally heard the neighbor dogs barking, so I went out on the deck where I could see their back yard, and there was Brutus, teasing them in their kennel. Again, not funny! I called for him to come, and this time he did "mosey" on home. When he got closer and could tell I was mad, he declined coming up the deck steps on the back of the house, and tooled around to the front of the house and sat in his purple pool. Odd choice of things to do, but probably not a bad idea since he was all muddy from his little adventure.

So, I had a little chat with him, and put him on his leash. About twenty minutes later I went to see how he was doing, and there laid his leash, and his collar, and NO BRUTUS. It looked like he had probably been chasing something under the stairs and ripped his collar off during the chase. This time when I called him, he came back in about five minutes, and again, sat in his purple pool. What's with the pool?? I wonder if he thinks that he'll be safe in the middle of his pool? It's not like I've ever hit him. Cripes, I barely raise my voice to him. Maybe that's the problem!!

This time I put on his e-collar. He still doesn't like it, but he seems to respect the fact that when it's on, he stays put. Or so I thought..........So, I went to check on him after about ten minutes, and he was, wait for the drum roll, GONE! I couldn't believe it. After calling for him for a few minutes, I grabbed the beeper and ran to the deck to see if I could spot him in the back yard. Sure enough, he had a chipmunk up a tree. I called him twice, and he wasn't budging, so I hit the tone button. He looked at me like "yeah, right". What was with this attitude? Normally the sound of the tone had him running to me like the kid who always wants to be first in line for lunch. I had even managed to break him of the whole chipmunk chase thing so he would stop when I told him "no". What on earth was going on?

So, I walked down the hill and beeped him again. This time, he walked further away from me onto the dock. This was just crazy. I called him twice again, and he wouldn't come, so I beeped him again. He went in the lake. Now I was mad. I marched right down to the lake, told him to get his butt out of the water and marched him up to the garage. He's darn lucky I don't have the heart to zap him. He would have been toast!

Brutus is now in the front of the house, with his collar on, on the outdoor leash, and with the e-collar on. If he escapes all of these, it's to the kennel with that boy. I know these next several words are meaningless, but here it goes. I'm just not sure I can let those boys (Don and Brutus) have that much fun all of the time. When Don leaves, I'm left with a really naughty boy. Wow. I sound like the mom of a toddler.