Jet Lag: Dog Style July 27, 2013

You might not think about this, but jet lag is not just for people. I know that I didn’t think about this when we brought Laguna from Thailand to California. (This is part three of the story of our dog traveling from Thailand to the US, you can read about the journey here and our dog’s first thoughts here) I figured that dogs sleep large parts of the day so she shouldn’t have any trouble sleeping in a new country. Not only that, but Laguna was now allowed to sleep in our room with us (we had a no pets allowed upstairs rule in our Bangkok town home), so she should sleep wonderfully, or so we thought.

On our first night in California, we crashed relatively early at about 9pm. Ellie had long fallen asleep before 7 from exhaustion and time differences. We excitedly told Laguna she could sleep with us and went to bed.

Jet lag is not easy to deal with, but with a toddler, you easily spend half the night awake. Either you are awake because of your own jet lag or you are awake with the little one. By 1am, Ellie decided night time was over and she needed a snack of peanut butter, it was well past lunch time in Bangkok after all. An hour later, she is back to sleep and I’ve just fallen asleep when Laguna decides night time is over. This time it was Andy’s turn to deal with sleeplessness, so he takes the dog for a potty break and then tries to convince her that it is in the middle of the night and time to sleep.

That might have worked, if not for a mirrored closet in the room we were sleeping in. If you remember, my dog is a timid dog, fearful of all other dogs in Thailand. Well, Laguna caught her reflection in the mirror and thought it was another dog. Fearful, but thinking she needed to protect her family, Laguna started growling to scare away the other dog. She slowly crept closer, watching the other dog creep closer as well. The growling intensified as Laguna saw the threat moving closer to her and her family. By this time, the only one sleeping in our room was Ellie.

We tried to reason with Laguna, but to no avail. She needed to protect us. Desperate to get back asleep, I moved a suitcase in front of the mirror and told Laguna the other dog was gone. Laguna sat up to verify and found the other dog, now hiding behind the suitcase. Every few seconds, Laguna would check to see if the dog was still there, growl, see that the dog wasn’t coming any closer and then lay back down. Desperate, I finally called Laguna over and then held her down facing away from the mirror and fell asleep.

Every night for the next few nights, Laguna woke up in the middle of the night. She would beg for a potty break, drink water and try to eat. Her body thought it was the middle of the day, not the middle of the night. Andy walked her for about a week and then told Laguna enough is enough. No more night time escapades, it is not day time but sleeping time.

Has your pet ever had jet lag?

Culture Shock: Dog Style, Part 1 July 22, 2013

After traveling for nearly 24 hours (read more about that here), our dog arrived on foreign soil, complete with new smells and a new dog culture.

We took her to my parent’s home and introduced her to my parents’ dog, a little yapping panda look-alike dog. Even though Laguna towered over this little dog, she cowered in fear that it would attack her. Thus began her enculturation into American dog culture.

The cute non-threatening dog

Dogs in Thailand behave very differently than dogs in America. In Thailand, dogs are mainly street dogs, guard dogs, or never leave the home (unless they are being carried). All the dogs you, or Laguna, would ever meet are aggressive and mean. We would walk down the street with our dog on a leash for nightly walks. We had to always keep an eye out for the coming attack of a street dog. They would spot Laguna and just wait until we crossed their invisible territory line. The moment we did, they would growl and walk forward ready to attack. It only took a sharp “Hey!” and a step towards the street dog for it to back off and leave Laguna alone. That is until they thought we weren’t watching, and then they would chase us down and nip at Laguna’s back. Most of the time, we kept them away, but sadly, not always.

Walking the dog in Thailand

Now, in the US, most dogs are friendly and kept to be pets. They don’t attack other dogs or people for that matter. But Laguna didn’t know all this, all she knew was mean dogs, so she cowered in fear as she met this new dog.

Over the next few days and weeks, Laguna learned that dogs in this strange new country are friendly and not out to get her. She is now best friends with my parents’ dog and they spend their days chasing each other around the yard.