The trip to the vet went well in the end, no poop pun intended. I rent from Enterprise and while I quite like them as a company (and they come pick you up and drop you off), they were an hour and a half late with the car. This set me back a bit. I got my hair cut and then got a trunk full of groceries and a carton of various wines from the LCBO. By the time I got back to the house and had unloaded the groceries, it was 2pm. I managed to have a little lunch and then stuffed Rockwell in the car and we were off to Guide Dogs. Halfway out the ‘hood, the passenger seat belt warning chime was still bonging so I had to stop and do up the seat belt. Rocky was roped to the thing that lets the seat move back and forward on the floor but he had enough room to sit up on the seat (covered with a towel of course) as well and jump into the driver’s seat when I wasn’t in the car. Anyway, we got to CGDB at 2:44 and our appointment was for 2:45. Yay! Then I saw there were three dogs ahead of me and one in with the vet.

One of the dogs waiting was a year old Lab, well on her way to becoming calm and listening to her handler. While the other three puppies were bouncing off each other, this Lab stayed off to the side even though she was very interested in the proceedings. I am hoping this might happen sooner as opposed to later with Rockwell! 25 minutes later, the vet said it could have been anything that Rockwell picked up that caused the diarrhea and unless it persisted, not to worry. She agreed that the only way to administer Pepto was with a syringe, so there is no trick to that. She inspected the rash and said it looked like the previous one just hadn’t been knocked out yet. So when the diarrhea clears up, it’s back on two weeks of antibiotics for Rockwell and then he should be done with that nonsense. When we finally got back to the house it was after 4pm. Rockwell got half his dinner and still hasn’t complained about the rations. This morning, he got a regular breakfast and had a soft but formed poop so I think we are getting back to normal.

In response to Laura’s question in the comments yesterday, here is what I understand about dogs’ signals to go out so they can relieve themselves. Uma never had a real signal either - she would just sit by the door until someone let her out. I guess after a while, someone will say, “hey, where’s the dog?” and then they will notice and let her out. As an adult dog, when she would have diarrhea (for any non-dog owners out there, this is quite common in all dogs), she would sit by the door and if you didn’t notice and she really HAD to go, she would whine to get your attention. This happened only a very few times in the middle of the night during 14 years and each time, she somehow made it clear she had to go NOW. Two nights ago, that is what Rockwell did too. He was in our room with the door shut and he paced around and scratched and then sat by the door which is loose in its frame so it bangs a little when you lean on it. This was enough to wake me up and when I asked him to go back to sleep, he didn’t. He persisted until I got up and we went out. It sure doesn’t sound like a fool-proof method but it seems to work. Plus, for everyday type eliminations, we let the dog out often enough that he shouldn’t have to pee in the house (although he did do that last week but again, I blame myself). Now a question back to Laura. People have asked me how do blind people pick up their dog’s “business”. I was told by CGDB that they arrange to have a sighted person do this for them and that is why the dogs are trained to poop on a rigid schedule, so the whole thing can be planned and coordinated like a military proceeding!

Hmm, here we are, back to talking abut poop again.