Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Since you saw Smokey and Charlie in their new wheels a couple of days ago, I thought you’d like to see what their new quarters look like.  We call it "The Wobblers’ Den," and it’s set up on the front porch of Widget’s House.

As cute as these two boys are, there is a problem with their daily care.  They have an inability or unwillingness to "hold it" when they’re indoors or in a crate for the night.  They are not incontinent per se — unlike our Dachshunds whose disk problems and resulting neurological damage make them unable to control their bowels or bladders.  We have other wobblers who are fastidious about their potty habits and have plenty of self-control, like Noodle — who is far more compromised than these two brothers.  There’s just something about bringing Smokey and Charlie indoors or putting them in a crate that seems to trigger a "release," and then their wobbliness makes an enormous mess … including getting poop smeared all over themselves and in every corner and surface of their crates.

We have tried changing their diets, the amount of food they get, the timing and frequency of their meals, you name it.  Nothing seemed to make any difference.  They could be outside all day, then we bring them in and — voila! — an accident five minutes later.  After months and months of trying to find a solution, we finally gave up trying to keep them as indoor dogs.  (We already have enough ‘close encounters of the fecal kind’ every day as it is!)  So we made them outdoor dogs much of the time, weather permitting … with a heated igloo and other shelter in our isolation yard.  We used this yard for them because it gave them more protection from the weather than any other area we had.  But of course, this made it difficult when new arrivals came and we needed the isolation yard for them.

So we decided to move the boys over to Widget’s House this spring and create a special place for them on the big covered porch.  A week ago our fence contractor put in the fencing for their den, giving them a big part of the porch and a small gravel yard for their potty business.  (Yes, they do use their potty yard, which shows they can exercise self-control.)  We put down rubber stall mats on top of the concrete porch, and then this week the final furnishings arrived:  gymnastic tumbling mats.  Those are the blue and green mats you see in the photo.  We had tried to find something that would cushion them when they fell over, yet firm enough for them to walk on (especially important given how wobbly they are in the first place).  We also needed it to be easy to clean and rinse off, and relatively weather-proof under a covered porch.  We finally hit on the idea of these tumbling mats.

The boys also have access to the Widget’s House yard when we let them out, and they’ll be able to use their new wheelchairs in this yard as well as on the rest of the porch, too.  They also like being in the center of things, getting to watch all the activity going on around them.

All in all, this is a big "lifestyle" improvement for the two brothers, who really seem to enjoy their new Wobblers’ Den!

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Update on Penny:  Dr. Rockwell called first thing this morning to say that Penny has bounced back in a remarkably fast turn-around.  Her blood work and temperature are now normal, no more vomiting or diarrhea overnight, and today she was able to drink some water and hold it down.  They will start her on small amounts of food this afternoon.  Penny should be able to come home in a couple of days.  What a relief!