Children And Dogs Need A Routine

Her Majesty knew a lot about raising kids. Child Development was her college major. Mine was Phys. Ed. About the only thing I could do raising young kids was to tape their ankle if it was sprained.

From the get go our children had a routine. Consistency is so very important. Children need to know what's expected of them and when.

I've had a number of dogs in my life from age six to present. Thinking back I did a lousy job of raising them. When they had to do their morning duty I'd let them run. When they came home I knew the job was done. Dinner time was when I got around to it.

When we took in our four year old homeless ugly but cute Charley a month ago I noticed how he needed a routine. Actually, I didn't notice it. The Queen instituted it.

Charley had been cage trained to sleep at night.(That's sort of silly to write that because Charley sleeps 28 hours a day--and you read that right). The wife awakens at 6:30 am and lets our new child out for his morning bladder elimination. After that breakfast of the same old crappy dry dog food which he devours in a nanosecond.

At 7:30 he'll run upstairs and jump on my bed then lie down. I used to think it was because he wanted to be near me. Not so. He likes the bedspread, I'm sure.

I'll get up, come downstairs, grab a cup of coffee or two and he jumps in my lap. After an hour of snoozing he jumps off and meanders the house for a minute then back onto my lap.

Oh, by this time The Queen has taken home for his morning walk where he does his real 'thing'.

In the pm------more sleeping.

At 5 pm it's play time. We have snacks and he does his one trick: 'sit, up' and then he gets his treats.

After this it's play time. He has a tug o' war rope. He loves that. He doesn't like balls unless they're soft.
I guess he's a softie. He has a cloth thingy that looks like a whale. The pet store told us it was virtually indestructible. It lasted a week before he ripped it to shreds. But he likes it.

At exactly 6 pm, on cue, Charley heads to the kitchen for his evening meal of crappy dry dog food which he eats quicker than he did his morning meal.

After dinner he sits on someone's lap.

We go to bed early; around 8 pm. We watch NetFlix, read, whatever. Charley's already in our bed because he knows ahead of time by 5 minutes when 8 pm will come. It's a sprint for him to get to the nice, comfy, warm, toasty spread; owners of the house be damned.

At 9  pm Her Majesty says, "C'mon Charley, it's time for bed" and quick like a bunny he heads out for his overnight cage.

And that, my friends, is how to raise small children and dogs.

I have to leave you with this one item. We never, not once, made our children sleep in cages.