We Learned Something New About Logan

After having Logan for about 8 months, we felt like we had a pretty good handle on who he was, what his personality is about and his general approach to things (putting them in his mouth). I mean they constantly do things to surprise you, but even the surprises fit into the general personality of the dog. The other day we discovered something new about him and it came as a bit of a shock.

Every night, before Mickael and I go to bed, we take Logan out to use the bathroom one last time. I think this is pretty standard for inside dogs. The other night Logan would not pee. I had him outside for over 30 minutes trying to get him to pee (usually we go out, he goes, we come back in - 2 minutes tops), walking, sniffing, not peeing, sniffing, walking, blowing in the breeze, not peeing. Finally, I got fed up with it and brought him back inside. I saw one of two things happening: either he'll wake us up in the middle of the night to take him outside, or he'd have an accident. Not really wanting to wake up in the middle of the night to go outside or clean up a puddle, I decided to put him in his crate to sleep.

Now you may remember that when we first got Logan we had to re-crate train him at night because he was waking us up in the middle of the night. Once we had him sleeping through the night again, we stopped crating him at night. He'll spend part of the night in the crate (with the door open), part of the night sleeping by my side of the bed and part of the night on the tile in the bathroom. He never leaves our bedroom area and he hasn't had any accidents (potty or chewing related). Since he's trustworthy and we know he's happy moving around a little, we don't mind him having freedom at night. When we leave the house, he's crated, so while he doesn't sleep all night in the crate, he's still familiar with it and comfortable being crated.

I brought him back inside after the futile potty attempt, put him in his crate, kissed him goodnight, and closed the crate. He fidgeted around in there, he was clearly not too happy, but he didn't give me a lot of options by not going potty. We all went to sleep. Around 3:00 AM Mickael woke up so he let Logan outside to see if he'd pee. Logan did, so when he came back in he was allowed to sleep wherever he wanted to. (After Logan came back in, I actually heard him close the door to his crate - he can't latch it, but he pushed it closed, hoping he wouldn't have to go back in.)

When morning came, I slept in a little bit. Logan was happily bouncing around with Mickael and Caleb when I woke up. Now normally Logan would bounce to me in the morning (he's a Momma's Boy) and show me all his happy wiggles and waggles. On this particular morning, he ignored me! It was like I was invisible and didn't exist. He was clearly upset about being crated the night before. Every morning, after he eats breakfast, Logan and I do Cuddle Time. I say, "Cuddle Time" and he'll come running from wherever he is and climb his front half into my lap (I sit at the kitchen table for Cuddle Time) and he wags and leans into me and I kiss him and squeeze him and love on him. It's very silly, but we both enjoy it and he'll even wake up from a nap for Cuddle Time. I thought Cuddle Time might bring him around, so I called for it and sure enough, he came and climbed into my lap. His tail was barely moving though (probably an involuntary muscle twitch because Golden Retriever tails almost never stop wagging, more than any real wag), he didn't lean into me and he refused to look at me. I've never seen him that interested in the light over the kitchen table. He was clearly very upset with me to be holding out on Cuddle Time.

It finally took me getting down on the floor and holding him and rubbing his belly before he forgave me for my horrible, abusive ways. All is right with the world now, but we had no idea that Logan was the type to pout and hold a grudge. Every night since then, he's peed before bedtime though.