My Dog Has OCD

I have a confession to make. My hyperactive, fluffy, froo-froo dog has OCD. Usually it is not a problem. It can be quite funny at times. For instance, when I have people over at the house, there is usually trash left on the floor in the form of cups or plates or napkins. If I let Lil T in the room, he barks like crazy until all of the trash is picked up. The only mess on the floor that he will allow is one that he made. It is strange. One afternoon I dropped a pillow on the floor accidentally while he was sitting on the couch with me, and he barked until I picked it up. It took me a while to figure out what he was barking at. As soon as I picked up the pillow, he stopped barking. Weird! The strange thing is that he is nothing like me in this respect. I mean, I thought dogs were supposed to be like their owners. However, I am the furthest thing from a neat freak and have to force myself to clean (unless, of course, the dog is barking out orders!).

Yesterday I was cleaning up the kitchen, doing dishes, randomly baking some peanut butter bars, and I accidentally knocked a plastic cup off the counter. Thinking I would pick it up when I finished that sink full of dishes since my hands were soapy and wet, I kept washing dishes. Lil T ran into the room, and went crazy. He turned into the Tazmanian devil barking and growling and turning in circles until I picked up the cup. Then he looked towards the living room, saw the blinking light of my laptop on the couch and went insane again. I had to close the door of the kitchen so that he could no longer see the blinking light.

This disorder even bleeds over into his hygeine habits. Because of the mean dogs next door, Lil T uses puppy pads inside the house. If he poops, he barks until it gets cleaned up. He doesn't want anything smelly in his area! He also demands baths. The past few Saturdays I have been pretty busy, and his baths have been spread out more instead of weekly. This is not acceptable to him. He has learned how to jump into the bathtub (which is a pretty impressive because I have a pedestal tub with high sides), and he will sit there until you give him a bath or physically remove him from the tub while he scratches and tries to bite you. It is really odd! I am glad he enjoys his bath so much though because it does make him easier to bathe.

I guess I may have contributed to his weirdness by naming him Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus, aka Tertullian, aka Lil T. And he does have more nicknames than most dogs his size (the youth and college at FBC WV, and even their parents and my parents have contributed the majority of these nicknames). And I did teach him how to "be a ballerina" as one of his tricks (after receiving this command he proceeds to stand on his two back feet and twirl in a circle, sometimes). At least his strangeness provides entertainment (and motivation to clean) for me!

He loves to sleep on his Mommy's body pillow, although it is three times the size of him.






Another difference between me and Lil T -- he loves feet. Strange dog!!