We are lucky enough to have the most patient,
docile, laid-back dog in the world. Max is about 7 years old according to staff
at the animal shelter, and he joined our family just one year before Baby B. He
and B get along very well when Max isn't getting his tail pulled, his eyes
poked or chased around the room. Some
would say they're best friends, but they're more than that. They're brothers.
Like most brothers, they get into mischief, learn
from each other and they have a lot in common. All traits that are endearing
when I watch B share his snack with Max, alternating crackers between them
while they sit together on the playroom floor. Other times their relationship
surprises me, like the time I walked into the kitchen to see B with his arm
wedged into the supposedly child-proof cabinet where we keep the dog treats,
taking them out one by one and putting them into Max's open mouth. Max took the
blame for that one. After all, he's older. He should know better than to
exploit the opposable thumbs of the easily influenced. And, on occassion, I am
downright appalled by the example Max sets for our 16-month-old son.
We recently started to introduce the concept of
the "potty" to B, just to get him familiar with the concept. We sit
him down on the potty after waking up in the morning or from naps, talk about
poopie until he wants to get down and then let him flush the nothing down the
toilet while we wonder if we anything we're doing is anything close to what
other people do to potty train. B has since shown he understands the word
"potty" and "poopie," so I guess we're doing something
right.
During a recent test of this knowledge, however,
when asked if he needed to go potty while we were playing outside at a water
table, B said, "no" and walked away. I wasn't convinced, so I asked
about poopie and he said "no" again. Then, he immediately walked to the middle of
the backyard where he's seen Max "poopie" on several occassions,
squatted down like a dog, and took a dump right there.
I'd really rather my son take bathroom habits
from human beings, but I guess you can't help what a child absorbs and ignores.
At least he's not trying to eat dirty diapers, something I've caught Max doing
way too many times for it to not be embarrassing, even for a dog.
It was another one of Max's transgressions that
really got me thinking about toddlers and dogs. We were all in our bedroom when
I heard a noise from the kitchen one afternoon and I went running to stop Max
from doing whatever he was doing once I realized he was unaccounted for. That's
when I caught him, wrapper in mouth, starting to chow down on a brand new,
entire loaf of bread he'd gotten off the counter. There were bite marks in the
bread and bits of plastic all over the living room.
It was then that I realized... if the culprit
hadn't been in the room at the time of my discovery, I really wouldn't have known who
to blame.
