I can take one look at Melvin’s face and know if he has done something he shouldn’t have. I say ‘show me’ he does just that and I follow-up with the usual, ‘it’s OK’.
Jake is a bit different in his approach. Ninety-five percent of the time, Jake is at my feet or Melvin’s butt. If he is not at one of those locations, something is going or has already gone terribly wrong. I will eventually find him like this:
Once I find him, I stop what I’m doing and locate what he’s done. This weekend it was peeing, twice.
I don’t know how it worked in his first home. I’m not sure why he puts himself in these self-imposed time-outs. I do know that during these moments, he seems like a tiny, tortured soul. My guess is that he is surprised that his dark side has won out. As if, just maybe, it was out of his control. The most I can do in these situations is let him know that I love all of his sides. And then I lure him out of his make-believe prison sentence (the one where he is both warden and inmate) and wait for the right moment for positive reinforcement, like when his alter ego is not peeing on the bedroom floor.
Poor little guy!! It must be so hard coming down so hard on yourself (not that I would know anything about that…). Thanks for showing him that it’s okay to make mistakes!
He is so friggen funny. So many layers to such a small body!
Poor Jake… he’s lucky his mama is so forgiving… but I mean, really, how could you NOT forgive a cute little dude who gives himself self-imposed time outs? Or, for that matter, a cute BIG dude who shows you what he did wrong? 🙂
I know, they both would be terrible criminals!
That is pretty funny! Gambit sometimes decides to go to time out instead of doing what we ask if we start counting or ask him if he wants a time out (his warnings that it’s time to shape up). I think it’s partially out of not wanting to do what we ask, but also because he knows he needs to step away and regroup. Maybe Jake was trained to go straight to time out if he did something wrong?
I love the counting! I get the sense that in Jake’s previous life, people didn’t care too much, one way or the other. Maybe he learned to go into time out to show himself he cared about himself. That’s my job little buddy!
Oh my lord Jake, as if it was possible for me to love you any more…GAH I just want to hug and smooch on his adorable little face!!
I know! It’s a great to laugh at his adorableness before you head in to clean up the mess!
Aww poor little guy. Hopefully the longer he’s with you the less he feels like he needs to punish himself. Lily puked on me this morning a few minutes before I left for work and I had to reassure her (as I changed my clothes) that it was okay and she wasn’t in trouble.
Oh no! Isn’t it so funny (or sad???) when they think throwing up is punishable offense? That’s just life little buddies!
Poor little man… Makes you wonder what he’s been through.
I’m going to try a few self-imposed time outs on myself. I can’t possible look as cute though.
Both warden and inmate. LOL! Your blog entries are some of the funniest I read =) Thanks for brightening my day always!
This cracks me up! I wish one of my dogs did it
Stop on by for a visit
Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/
oh goodness, he’s such a character. I’ve honestly never had a dog that acted guilty AFTER the fact, haha. If they don’t get caught, they’ve always been super good at keeping their cool.
We are just a bunch of truth tellers in this house!
self-imposed time-outs… that’s the exact phrase I thought of looking at the pics!
Love the pillow!!!!