Bedroom Break-ins

It's a well known fact that Caesar can break into our bedroom.  I sort of turn a blind eye to it.  Admittedly, this is partly because I don't really know what to do about it.  He breaks in during the day and curls up on our bed.  Although this is a little irritating, at least it means that he isn't demolishing the rest of the house - well most of the time anyway.

Caesar's favourite place to be - under the covers in our bed!

So, with great guilt, I have to admit that I haven't done much in the way of stopping this behaviour.  I don't love the fact that my bed is being slept on all day by an often sweaty and sometimes muddy/sandy villain in the shape of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.  However, I've learnt to choose my battles with Caesar and decided that this wasn't one worth fighting.  Partly because the rest of the house was more likely going to suffer if he wasn't lazily lying about on the bed.

This, in my opinion, was all very well and good...until a few weeks ago.  It was a school night and I'd gone to bed as usual, Caesar by my side.  I'd drifted off into my usual sleep and being abruptly woken by Damien, as usual, taking Caesar to the toilet and then putting him downstairs for the night.  It didn't take me long to drift off again and I was having the most interesting dream about buying a new mirror for the bedroom when....'BANG!'

Big baby having teddy cuddles!

I woke up with such a jump that I felt dizzy.  Then another 'BANG' and then a squeak as the door opened.  Then a scuttling of claws on laminated floor and a sudden impact to the legs.  "Ouch!"

I sleep on the side of the bed that is not next to the door and so, for no other reason aside from this (honestly), I decided to wake Damien up.  Grumpily, he dragged himself out of bed and took Caesar outside again.  This happened another twice during the night.

After a night of disrupted sleep, I realised that I am never going to make a good or patient mother.  "GET OUT!" I screeched at him as he broke in for the third time.  The next few weeks only got worse!

Now, at the first sign of noise, I have taught myself to respond with a quick and loud "NO!" I'm sure that sometimes I even do this before I wake up!  I often find myself yelling at all times of night and morning as Caesar can strike at just about any time.  Last night, there were 3 separate night time raids followed by a huge amount of outside bedroom wailing!

I'm sure our neighbour absolutely loves us....and our delinquent dog....

There's still a few slots available in the Rescue Dogs Advent Calendar.  If you would like to submit your dog, follow the link at the top of the page "2013 Advent Calendar".  

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Christmas present defense...

People talk often about love-hate relationships.  Where half of the time you love someone and the other half you hate them.  I sort of feel like this about Caesar, except for all of the time I hate him and all of the time I love him.

'Hate' is a strong word, I hear you think.  Well, I suppose your right.  But, then again, five-hundred pounds is a lot to pay for a wardrobe only to find it destroyed.  Why?  Because you hid the Christmas presents in it.

Caesar is like a spoilt child at Christmas.  He makes it his soul mission to locate the Christmas presents.  Locate and destroy - that is his winter mission.  Last year, luckily, he managed to break and enter into the room containing the Christmas presents a week too late, thus destroying the presents that I had received from other people and guzzling my boxes of Christmas choccies and despite upsetting me hugely, also saving me hundreds of pounds.  Oddly enough, Caesar is not the first pet I have had that has attempted this.  When I was 10, I had a gerbil that, after attempting to hibernate, came back to life whilst in the front room by the fire, escaped from it's cage and promptly gnawed it's way through the presents under the tree.  Maybe it's just me and my bad luck with animals.  Perhaps I induce some kind of Christmas mania on pets!

Did somebody mention Christmas?

Anyhow, I cannot describe the feeling when I walked through the front door to find my dining room security system had been breached and a very sick looking Caesar was sitting amongst piles of packaging.  This is bad enough, but then you have to endure the people who tell you how you shouldn't have left it somewhere where he could get it.  I kindly remind them that I didn't think he would be able to get it there...hence the reason I left it there.  I will now proceed to move it to somewhere else I don't think he can get it and see if that works.  Chances are that, eventually, it won't.  Then, I'll be reminded of how this has happened before and I shouldn't have put it somewhere where he could get it.  And so continues the circle of destruction.  Caesar is like the housework; just when you think you've got on top of it, someone comes in with muddy boots on and everything is a mess again.  Except for at least people don't say "I told you you shouldn't have cleaned that floor..."  (I'm assuming this as it's not a problem I'm likely to come up against).

He might look like a perfect gentleman but wait until he gets near those presents!

For now, the Christmas presents remain safe.  Behind a partly destroyed but as yet unopened wardrobe door.

Here is the 5 point Christmas present security plan:

1.  Presents in a chest of drawers.  Drawers are weighted so difficult to open and shut automatically if opened a short way.
2.  Chest of drawers is inside a wardrobe which has two paneled doors.
3.  Doors are tied shut by scarf/belt.
4.  Wardrobes are in bedroom behind closed door.
5.  Bedroom is upstairs.  Stairs are guarded by a child gate.

As you can see, for Caesar to have caused damage to said wardrobe doors, which he has, he would have had to have already overcome points 4 and 5 of the security plan.  This is true.  However, as yet, points 1, 2 and 3 still remain strong enough to withstand his constant attempts to breech them....

Will it last until Christmas?  Only time will tell...

There's still time to enter your rescue dog's details into Caesar's Rescue Advent Calendar.  Follow the link to submit your dog, then look out for them appearing on the calendar in the lead up to Christmas! 

 Christmas Calendar Entry Form

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Caesar's Rescue Advent Calendar

Over the last few weeks, something has occurred to me.  It's taken a little time but I keep having snippets of ideas that flicker into my mind at odd times like when I'm lying in bed or eating my lunch or when I'm walking Caesar.  Then, as quickly as they came, they go again.

You see, when I started the 'Saving Caesar' blog and indeed the book, my main aim was always to reach out to other dog owners, particularly those who were having a difficult time with their dogs.  Caesar is our first dog.  We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for when we rescued him and, to be fair, neither did the rescue.  Rescue's can't know how a dog will behave when they live in a house - unless they are a foster dog - it's not possible.  During the first months in particular, I felt fairly down about everything.  I felt like I hadn't done something right or that I just wasn't the right person to help Caesar through his issues.  I tried really hard but every failure was a huge knock and soon I felt hopeless.

It was during these particular difficult times that I really began to believe that I wasn't a suitable owner.  Every day at work, I would worry about it.  Caesar should have been with someone who didn't work, I would think because he can't cope with being left.  I would also worry that I didn't have a big enough house and garden for a dog who needs to be constantly on the lead.  Perhaps he should have gone to a farm where he would have space to run about and be off his lead and he didn't have to be cooped up in a house and get so frantic that he destroyed things.

Then, one day, I met Emma.  She also had a rescue dog and she told me of some of the issues she had come across over the years she'd had him.  I apologised throughout our meeting for the noise that Caesar was making towards her dog but she was completely unaffected.  "It's fine."  For once, I felt like it might be.

I immediately went home and told Damien all about the girl I had met with the dog that slipped it's harness and ran off after another dog.  She, like me, had been mortified by his actions.  She was also willing to try walking our dogs together.  'What have I got to lose?'  I thought.

Over the next few weeks, my attitude to Caesar changed entirely.  Here was someone who was happy to walk her dog with him, despite the noise he was making and the fact that he was lunging about on his lead.  She smiled at him affectionately and didn't seem to care that he kept jumping around like a maniac.  She'd seen it before, I realised.

I took this photo because Caesar was actually sitting on a step next to another dog which he wasn't trying to jump on!  He'd met Tango only a handful of times...

Meeting Emma made a huge difference to me - it showed me that I wasn't alone.  And, after that breakthrough, I began to notice lots of other people who had dogs that broke into rooms, ate furniture, barked at other dogs, couldn't cope with being left alone and I had to admit that some of them were MUCH worse than Caesar.  It was then that I knew what I had to do....somehow I had to get the message to other dog owners that no matter how bad things get, you are not alone!  And so the idea for Saving Caesar was born.

Now to the advent calendar
Now to the idea itself.  As I said, glimmers of ideas had been flickering in my mind for a little while.  Somehow, I wanted to connect other rescue stories to the blog....  I chose specifically rescue stories because I wanted people to see the different issues that rescue dogs can have.  Each day, from December 1st, a window will open to a rescue dog and you will be able to read each one's different story.  In the spirit of Christmas we're going for lighthearted and fun with a few anecdotes and the reasons that we love our dogs.

How to enter
Just fill in the form with details of your rescue dog(s).  And, before December 1st, I will pick 25 to put on the calendar.
Click this link to access the form:

Caesar's Rescue Advent Calendar 2014 Entry Form
http://www.formpl.us/form/0B8EZUcIQCXMFTUVnSHBkR0dlaEU

Bangwhizzing popfizzers...the stairs are exploding!

I aplogoise in advance of this post.  It's 22:40 and I still need a shower before bed.  So, it will need to be short and sweet which is not at all my style!  This is the first night where I've actually had my eyes still open by the time I've finished work so I guessed, after not posting for four days (sorry), that it was a good time for a quick blog update.

The last few days have been stressful to say the least.  The fireworks have made Caesar very jumpy and shaky and nothing seems to be easing this.  Unfortunately, the usual tricks (crate, Thundershirt, ear defenders) were just not enough this time to counter the people behind us who decided to have their own fireworks display in a back yard that can't be more than 10 square metres.  I have to admit that even I was a little jumpy at some of the bangers that went up last night!

Caesar was past himself and, to begin with, stuck himself to me like glue.  However, this soon stopped when, taking a step onto the stairs, a huge bang went off outside of the window!  Poor Caesar leapt up like he had been shot and clearly associated the noise with the fact that he'd put his paw onto the stairs.  After that, he was very unnerved by the stairs and it took ages to get him to come down.

As a result of all of the fear that went on in our house last night, Caesar refused to go to the toilet before bed, despite the fireworks having stopped by this point and left me a lovely present to tidy at the end of the spare bed!  Thanks Caesar!

Caesar not looking very happy about the fireworks - this was at about 5 o'clock!!!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Fun on the furniture...

Good intentions.  It's what we all have when we adopt any dog or puppy.  But how many of your rules have stuck?  How many of your rules did you yourself truly believe in?

When we got Caesar, we had a short (we thought) list of rules that were going to form the foundation of our relationship.  They were as follows:

1.  No going upstairs
2.  Must sleep in a crate
3.  To be contained to dining room when left alone.
4.  No going on the furniture

I can quite honestly say that none of these rules are now in place.  But, hopefully, I can justify the reason for the majority of them being scrapped.  Let's break these down.

1.  No going upstairs
We spent the first few days of Caesar's adoption chasing him back downstairs.  He would insist on investigating the top of the stairs and rooms surrounding.  It consumed a great deal of our time stopping this and, having fitted a baby gate, he proceeded to jump over it.  The problem was, Caesar wanted to be wherever I was and if that place was upstairs, then it was upstairs that he wanted to be.  Eventually, I got him to stay downstairs.  Then, one day while I was alone in the house and in the shower, I heard a lot of noise coming from downstairs.  I couldn't get down to find out what he was doing and by the time I did he had pulled things off shelves and torn pieces of paper to shreds.  He had also gone to the toilet on the floor.  I realised how uncomfortable he was being left and it hit me that, by extending that time to times when I was upstairs as well as times when I was out of the house, I extended his anxiety.  I decided that I was fighting a losing battle by banishing him to the downstairs of the house and so, eventually, taught him how to follow me up and down the stairs carefully.  Now, he sits in the bathroom while I have a shower or even go to the toilet.  He gets ready with me for nights out and watches me while I do my hair on a morning before work.  Never again has he destroyed anything in the house while I have been there...

Now I've broken this rule, I can't even go to the toilet in peace!

2.  Must sleep in a crate
The point of this rule was to make Caesar feel safe but also to stop him from destroying anything while we were in bed.  He hated his crate from the word go, despite our trying everything in the book.  We fed him in there, we left treats and toys in there and, when all that didn't work, we eventually tried sitting in there with him.  Caesar's in-crate behaviour was not only naughty but downright dangerous.  He would screech and cry for some time and then we would hear a lot of clattering and crashing.  On going downstairs, we would find thin trails of blood everywhere, usually coming from his tail.  Caesar had learnt to force the crate door by crashing into it so hard that he hurt himself.  When he was trapped inside, he would bite his tail until it bled.  After a few nights, we realised that he was less likely to hurt himself by being left out of his crate within the confines of the dining room; even if the dining room suffered as a result.

Much happier in his own comfy bed

3.  Be contained to the dining room
The dining room in our house is a good size and had toys, bowls of food and drink as well as a comfortable bed and crate for Caesar.  However, none of these proved enough to satisfy him.  And, on returning from work, I would take a pause before opening the door.  Caesar had usually, at the very least, messed on the floor but usually, had skidded around on the dining table, pulled books off the shelves and bitten his tail some more.  Eventually, my dog trainer suggested giving him the run of the house...

The second week that we had Caesar - exhausted from playing with his Kong all around the house!

4.  No going on the furniture
After a few months of developing an unbreakable bond with Caesar, I realised that I wanted to take him for a cuddle on a night or sit him on my knee on an evening.  So, selfishly, he is now allowed on the furniture.

I'll admit it was a mistake telling him that he was 'allowed on the furniture'...

So there you are, all 4 rules broken in the first 18 months.

What rules have you broken?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Happy Halloween!

A very Happy Halloween everyone!  

After our rather genuine scare on Tuesday, I'm pleased to report that Caesar is finally back to his usual self.  In fact, he was feeling so much better today that he went looking for the bag of food again.  Luckily, it was in an airtight box with a clipped on lid!

So for now, we are enjoying Halloween together and I'm feeling pleased that, this hallows eve, he is joining me on the right side of rainbow bridge! 

So, in the spirit of Halloween, I have a scary question for you!  What is the scariest moment that you've had with your pet?

What about GDV?

Something new happened yesterday.  It hit me by complete surprise.  I had popped out for an hour or so and returned home to find my prize winning kitchen doorknob had failed on me (Read Kitchen Defence for more details on kitchen safety measures including the award winning doorknob: http://savingcaesar.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/kitchen-defence.html).

Caesar's always keen to help out with the cooking.

I've returned home before to find that the kitchen had been ransacked but this time, to my utter amazement, there was only one thing out of place.  It was an open bag of dry dog food and it was lying in the middle of the floor.  Now, we ordered this new 12kg bag about a week ago and it came the next day.  Usually my dog food is kept in an airtight plastic container but as Gemma and Caesar now have different food for their dinner, I have yet to buy another container or to find where to put it in our poxy kitchen.  As I lifted the fallen bag into place, I noticed that it was still very heavy.  'That's good' I thought, foolishly 'if he's had any, it can't have been much...'

The rest of the day passed in a whirl.  I was busy tidying the kitchen and cooking and then cleaning.  Caesar sat quietly in the kitchen.  Then, at tea time, I called the dogs to come for tea.  I had decided just to pop a hand-full of food into the bowls.  After all, I didn't know which dog had been at the food.  Gemma sat impatiently at the door, dancing from foot to foot and waiting for her tea.  Caesar, on the other hand, almost turned green.  He looked at the food, then turned away and walked off.  This is Caesar we are talking about too; I've never seen him turn food away in his life!

Caesar's stomach had swollen terribly.

It was then that I began to notice other oddities about my little friend.  For example, his ears were back and he did keep breaking wind, which is a little unusual for him.  Within minutes of me noticing this, his stomach seemed to swell.  The more I looked, the more he looked like a balloon standing on four cocktail sticks... I wasted no time in ringing the vet who told me to bring him immediately.  By this time, it had been almost five hours since Caesar had eaten the food.  'I should have known!'  I thought miserably.  'I should have taken him earlier!'  In hindsight, I thought, I perhaps should have got him checked just in case.  But how was I to know?  It didn't look as though he'd eaten much at all.

Before going to the vet, I quickly pushed the bag onto the scales.  9.5kg.  Gemma had been eating from the same bag for almost a week now too.  How much had he really eaten?

Not his usual playful self at all - Caesar didn't want anyone to go near him, let alone touch him.

Why is it that when you're in a rush to get somewhere like, for example, the vets, that everyone decides to go slowly.  The person in front of me, who was already only going at 20mph, decided to break when I came up behind them.  For no other reason, I thought, than the fact that I looked like I was in a rush.  Also, possibly because I said a mean word that they didn't hear but probably did see my face which was getting redder and redder.

Caesar, who is normally very slim.  Looked as though he had swallowed a balloon.

The vets is already 20 minutes away but, in this traffic, it took me nearly 30 minutes.  The car windows were all open as Caesar filled the car with toxic bottom gases!  And the person in front refused to speed up.  Finally, I got there, jumped out of the car and rushed Caesar in.  By this point, he was squealing...

Feeling very sorry for himself.  

The vet confirmed my fears, it was too late to make Caesar sick so all we had to do was wait and hope that the food passed through.  She gave me two symptoms to look out for:
1.  Bloat - beyond what I was seeing now...
2.  Trying to be sick/go to the toilet but failing.
She also explained that she could admit Caesar for the night but that I would probably be better watching him myself.  After all, he is my dog and I am supposed to know him best.  Then, she gave him a strong painkiller which she told my might send him off to sleep.  All I could do now was wait.

By the time we got home, Caesar was bellowing in the back of the car.  As soon as I stopped, he jumped out and went to the toilet.  He went another three times between the car and the house.  I ran out of bags and then embarrassingly had to retrace my steps with hands full of bags.  A man asked me "have you lost something love?"
"....yes.  A poo..."
Rather unsurprisingly, he didn't answer that.



Things were bad overnight and Caesar lay on the floor howling in pain.  At one point, I let him into the garden and then could not find him anywhere.  Eventually, with the help of a strong torch, I found him hidden among some bushes, shaking.  A few times, I dialled the emergency vet number and then changed my mind.  Caesar wasn't showing either of the two symptoms that the vet had described.  His stomach was swollen but only to the same extent it had been when I took him to the vet.  At least I thought so.  He was managing to go to the toilet....every 5 minutes in fact.  The problem was that he was making a lot of noise and everytime he began to sleep, he jumped back up in panic.  Caesar continued to go to the toilet and let out his trapped wind.  I've never been so pleased to pick up runny dog poo or put up with the smell of dog pumps as I was last night.  These signs, the vet had told me, were good ones.

I woke up this morning with Caesar cuddled into my shoulder.  It was progress from last night when he refused to come near anyone.  He was still whining quietly but when he came downstairs his tail wagged manically to see my mum and dad.

Today, I am going to buy a safe container to put our new food in so that this will never happen again.  If you haven't got one already, I recommend you do the same.  GDV or Gastric torsion can kill in minutes - hours.  It's never worth the risk.

Know your facts about GDV/Gastric Bloat/Gastric Torsion
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/bloat  - ASPCA on signs of bloat and what to do
http://www.dfordog.co.uk/article-dog-bloat-torsion.html  - Article on what Dog Bloat is.


Thanks for reading!