Outsmarting Kit

It takes a lot of energy to outsmart your dog. It became necessary to outwit ours the other night when we decided to sleep upstairs since she had crept into our room earlier in the day and emptied her bladder on our bed. Fortunately, we got the pee up and washed all the linens!

Kit sleeps in a crate outside of our bedroom in the kitchen. Every night she watches us intently as we say goodnight to her before retiring to our room. According to Kit, Lawson needs to get into bed and remain there all night. Since our dog had peed on our bed, it was necessary to sleep elsewhere while the sheets were washing. This is not OK by Kit's standards. If she realizes that Lawson is not sleeping in his bed, she barks very loudly repetitively. Kit could care less about me however. I can sleep in any area of the house without Kit getting mad at me.

Lawson and I devised a plan together to outsmart our dog. Both of us said "Goodnight" to Kit as we went into our room and shut the door. After I brushed my teeth, took out my contacts and put on my glasses, I left the bedroom and took Kit out of her crate so she could go potty outside. While I was waiting for Kit to go potty on the grass, Lawson counted to 10, left the bedroom (making sure he shut the door) and rushed upstairs. I returned Kit to her crate and entered the bedroom once again. After I counted 10 seconds, I left the room shutting the door behind me, and traveled across the living room to check on Ruthie. Seeing her sleep peacefully, I made my way upstairs as silently as possible on my hands and knees. As I was crawling up the stairs, I heard Kit whine a bit but she was quiet after a minute or two.

We had the baby monitor upstairs with us turned up to the loudest volume possible. This was so that we would be able to hear if Kit whined or barked and Ruthie's whimpering and cries above the sound of the box fan. All went well. This was not the case however, at another time when we had to sleep upstairs.

Kit had detected that Lawson was not in bed and barked incessantly, requiring Lawson to change Kit's crate to a new location: the laundry room. Even with the door shut, we could still hear Kit as if the door was open. Lawson eventually returned her crate to it's original position and gave Kit a swat on the bottom and stern words. She continued to bark very loudly for the next 5-10 minutes but her barks eventually turned to whines and then silence after two more serious "sessions" with Lawson and I.

We could say that Kit is a great trouble maker but we love her very much and are glad that she "protects" us in the house. She will bark to alert us if things are out of place at night time. We feel more secure knowing that Kit is a great "dog alarm" and don't know what we'd do without her! (By the way, Ruthie sleeps through all of the noise)!!!