Routines
It is funny, we all have our routines and we tend to find comfort in our everyday routines. When my daughter, Denise, was young, she had a bedtime routine. You know the usual, bathe, brush teeth and listen to a bedtime story. Every night, Denise would crawl into my bed for a bedtime story, before being tucked in her own bed at night. I read her so many books, starting with the golden books then moved on to the classics like Tom Sawyer and the Little House on the Prairie series. As soon as Denise was preparing for bed, my second Springer, Spencer, would hunt for his yellow squeaker ball. It was his favorite and he always remembered where he had it last.
As she crawled into my bed, Spencer would crawl under the bed with his favorite ball in his mouth. As soon as I would begin to read, he would begin to chew on his ball, make it squeak. As long as I continued to read, he continued squeaking his ball. If I stopped for any reason, he would stop as well. If Denise fell asleep, and I stopped reading, Spencer would stop squeaking his ball, and crawl out from under the bed to “help me” put her to bed. Not only did Denise find comfort and security and also a love of books from her routine, I think that Spencer found the security under the bed and comfort from my voice and chewing his squeaker ball. Dogs are a lot like children and they like routine too!