Ah, the Beagle.

Ah, the Beagle.

So I thought everything was going swimmingly with Betty the Beagle. I was leaving her home a few days a week and none of my neighbors had complained about her. I was even cutting her tranquilizer dose in half since she seemed to be mellowing out when I was out at night, and Thursday I decided to not even give her half a dose. I thought things were going great!

Well, kind of.

A week ago I did a test run where I left her out of the crate during the day only to arrive home and find my brand new comforter had been shredded and my new fitted sheet had been ripped. Luckily I've outfitted the refrigerator with a lock or I'm sure it's contents would have been decimated as well. Lesson learned.

Then, last Thursday, when I didn't giver her the tranquilizer she decided to bark all night long while I was out. I got a call from my landlord the next day saying he'd gotten numerous complaints and some new tenants were literally going crazy because they said Betty was barking all the time. Who could blame them? So I freaked. I figured zero progress had been made and this drove me into a funk. I also couldn't figure out why, if she had been barking all day the last few weeks when I left her home, no one had told me.

Then I realized the new tenants that said Betty was "always barking" had just moved in and had probably been in the building less than a day or two ... and Betty was in daycare all Friday ... so I think they were referring to her barking Thursday night! So maybe she is making progress? I know some folks in the building who have said Betty barks for a while after I leave, but then she chills out, and it's nothing like it was when I moved in. So can I leave her home some days? I don't know at this point. Considering her barking DEFINITELY got her off on a bad foot (paw?) with the new tenants I'm going to err on the side of caution and keep her out of the house during the day for at least the next week.

So I guess this ends up being a sort of confusing update because I don't know how much progress Betty has actually made. I know for a fact when I've left her home to run a short errand and I've been back within 20 minutes she has already stopped barking by then, so I'm going to say I think she has made progress. Geez, I sure hope so.

Poor little pooch!