Dogs do all kinds of things when they’re bored. They can be terribly destructive, chew on furniture, shoes and tear up stuff. Dogs will start snooping around, checking out something that smells interesting then go after it with a vengeance. Where some people eat when bored, Orso drinks when he’s bored. He finds the one pastime that he really likes. Orso drinks water. Not just come into the kitchen and drink water when he’s thirsty. Oh no. Orso will stand and lap at the water in one of the water buckets in the kitchen, not really drinking, but sort of flicking his tongue into the water, just killing time waiting for something to fall off of the countertop. He tries to be so nonchalant about it. If we’re not paying attention to him, he will stand there for five or ten minutes playing in the water. The next thing we notice is that he has drained the bucket. That dog has drunk a gallon of water just being bored killing time.
It doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world, drinking too much water. It’s not fattening, calorie free and keeps your skin hydrated, all silky and smooth. Sounds great, until 12:45 in the middle of the night, when a giant dog head starts banging the side of the bed to wake you up because his bladder is about to explode. Whenever any of the dogs gets up in the middle of the night, they only come to my side of the bed. Mitch always gets to stay in Z land mainly because someone could drive a car through the house and he’d sleep through it. Not me, I’m a light sleeper so whenever anything stirs I’m awake. Raising two boys and staying one step ahead them creates light sleepers and it just stuck, even after they grew up, moved out and started their own families.
So at 12:43 to be exact, Orso started banging his head on my side of the bed. I turned on the light and tried to coax him onto the foot of the bed and go back to sleep, but he was having none of that. He had to go out RIGHT NOW! I dragged myself out of bed and of course the other two got up also, because when mom gets up, we all get up. Mitch can get up go to the bathroom or wander around the house, nobody else stirs, lucky me. I took them outside and Orso stood out there and peed in one spot for 8 minutes, I know because I timed him.
Now we have something new to watch out for, because I do not like getting up in the middle of the night for anything or anybody, especially not a dog.
A woman's view of hunting...with men 