Gary and I took Savannah back to the dog park on Sunday... we thought of bringing a can of mace with us in case those two pit-bulls were there again, but we compromised on an air horn. I told my husband that if he sprayed mace towards an aggressive dog then Savannah would most likely be affected by the spray as well.
I thought Savannah would hesitate when we got to the park the other day, but she walked up to the gate just like always, the memory of those two pit-bulls forgotten. Or so I thought. There were other dogs there for her to play with, and between running around chasing tennis balls and then jumping into the pool, Savannah was fine. Both my husband and I kept watching the entrance gate to the park, with an eye out for that car with the two pit-bulls and their clueless owner. Thankfully, they didn't show up and Savannah was able to enjoy the dogs and the park as she always does.
When we were almost ready to leave the park, one of the dogs Savannah had been playing with started barking at a little dog in the adjacent small-dog park. Savannah heard those barks and instead of going over there to investigate (as she always did before the pit-bull incident) she walked over to where my husband and I were sitting and she sat herself down next to Gary. She kept looking over towards the small-dog park but she made no attempt to get up and go over there. We thought it was a good time to leave, so we put Savannah's leash on and walked towards the gate. I think that particular barking dog made Savannah remember the aggressive pit-bulls and she felt safer just staying near us. Which of course made us feel very good, but I wish she had never set eyes on those pit-bulls.
On Sunday night, Savannah started barking in the middle of the night... one o'clock, then again at two-thirty... and by then I was wide awake so I just stayed up. I took her outside, which I hate to do in the middle of the night but with all that barking, I thought she might have to pee. Which she did, but I'm sure she could have held that till the sun came up. There were train noises that night, and coyotes howling, and heaven only knows what else is out there after midnight. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but that doesn't mean there wasn't something out there to get her to barking.
I get so frustrated with Savannah when she barks like that. I don't want to be up reading a book in the middle of the night, no matter how much I love my books. But I also don't want her down here just barking constantly because if I'm upstairs and hearing all of that, I can't sleep anyway. My husband puts his head under the pillow, but I just can't do that and ignore this puppy's frantic barking. I come down the stairs and put lights on, then look out on the porch and never see anything, but as I said, that doesn't mean there wasn't something out there to get Savannah to disrupt her own sleep, and mine.
I keep telling myself that Savannah is a very good dog (still a puppy, actually) and I can't let myself be mad at her when she keeps me up at night. We got another dog so there would be barking if anything out of the ordinary was happening outside on the property. There was a night not long ago when a strange car was out on the road, just sitting there with the headlights on and not moving. We live on a long and winding country road and when the night is dark without moonlight, cars can and do make wrong turns now and then. Everyone who lives here knows the vehicles belonging to the neighbors, so when an unfamiliar car or truck is on our road, we all take note.
And it's possible that Savannah has 'taken note' of the neighbors' vehicles as well... their sounds and their speed, and if a car stops out on the road, she wants to know why... and she will bark. And bark. And if it's the middle of the night, she will keep on barking till she gets me to come down those stairs and see what's happening out there. Honestly, there are nights when she sits there looking at me as if she's damn proud of herself for waking me up.
Life with a big dog. A big dog whose hearing is a thousand times more sensitive than mine. Thankfully, Savannah doesn't wake me up in the middle of the blessed night every night. I have to remember that when she does, it's not because she wants to, it's because she believes that she has to. She barked some last night, and when I came down the stairs and put on the porch lights, I saw absolutely nothing. By the time I had finished looking out the windows, Savannah had gone back into her bed. When I went outside this morning to walk her, I saw that three of the lawn ornaments were knocked over into the grass... either a raccoon or an armadillo had been by during the night. So once again, Savannah hadn't been barking just for the sake of barking.
There is no way to teach Savannah that a raccoon knocking over a gnome or an armadillo digging up a ceramic frog is not a threat to our lives. Whatever noise this puppy hears outside is a noise that she feels shouldn't be there, especially after dark.
As I type this, Savannah is all curled up in her comfy bed, and she's sound asleep. There are days when I wake up tired and wish I could just curl up and go back to sleep as well. Oh well.
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