[Dailydrool] Naughty Bassets

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

It's been my experience that a tired basset is a well-behaved basset.  
My young Charlie is much less likely to be naughty after a long walk  
or some time spent at doggie day care.

It's also been my experience that a basset who believes he's  
suffering from a lack of attention will quickly figure out that being  
naughty is a great way to ensure a human's attention is completely  
focused on him. For most of us, negative attention is better than no  
attention at all, and a basset's no different.

To use young Charlie as an example again, he was given up by his  
first home when he was not quite a year old because he was so  
destructive. He was destructive because he was spending most of his  
time shut up in his crate while they were at work, and when they were  
home he wasn't being played with or walked because his family was  
busy with dinner, sports, and getting homework done. His clever  
solution? Jump up on the bed and pee on the brand-new Ralph Lauren  
comforter. That sure got their attention, all right!

He's continued this effective method of getting attention on the few  
times he's stayed with our friend Jennifer while we're out of town.  
There's one of her to around five dogs, so Charlie ends up feeling  
neglected because he's not getting the amount of attention he's used  
to at home. To remedy this, he pees on the floor and then sits beside  
it to claim the mess as his, making sure the scolding/attention will  
land on him and not one of the other dogs who might happen to walk by  
at the wrong moment.

In our home, Charlie will break out the toilet paper rolls or laundry  
when he's feeling ignored and neglected. He's also not above removing  
magazines or paperbacks from the coffee table, running past us with  
them so we can see he has them, and then inviting us to play chase  
with him. He does all this with a merry twinkle in his eye--he has  
our full attention and we're interacting with him at last, hooray!

When Charlie starts doing naughty things, it's a reminder to me that  
I've not been interacting with him as much as he needs. It's a wake- 
up call to get him out on a walk or to spend some time chasing him  
(for fun, not for contraband in his mouth) or brushing him or simply  
rocking him on my lap until he goes to sleep.

It used to be that I had to keep young Charlie with me in whatever  
room I was going to be in because I couldn't trust him not to act  
like a buppy. It was a bit of a pain, but at the same time, I think  
that keeping him that close helped make our relationship close. He  
now usually chooses to be in whatever room I'm in, and he's become an  
excellent companion. A companion who, I have to remember, needs to be  
worn out periodically so he'll be too tired for naughtiness.

Elizabeth