Our Other Baby

Before our little girl came along, we acquired a 7-year-old little boy named Boss--our now-nine-year-old Rat Terrier. Boss came to us well trained. He slept without complaint in his crate, he knew by the tone of your voice if he needed to stay off the carpet, and he was generally just a well-behaved dog. Over time, we slacked off on a few of his restrictions. The first to go was him sleeping in a crate, mostly due to his aging hips. But from there, it was a downward slope. We managed to get him quite spoiled. All things considered, however, he was still pretty well behaved. Until another little being entered our house. From the time Aubrey arrived, Boss' behavior has lacked significantly. It is so obvious that he is jealous of the attention she gets from us. He is fine while we are all together in the same room: the downstairs part of our house is pretty much all open so as long as we are downstairs, he is good. A bit needy, but still good. When we go upstairs, either to take care of Aubrey or at night, that's when it all falls apart. "Accidents" have become routine. It's as though he thinks we won't bother to come take care of him even if he lets us know he needs something, so he just doesn't even let us know. I'm unbelievably fed up with it. But we are good people, and so because we are his second family already, he will continue to reside at the Stone house. But if any of you happen to be a dog whisperer on the side, please contact us. That is all.