I wish my puppy could talk ...

It's very difficult sometimes, when you know your puppy is unhappy or uncomfortable or hurt, to be able to cope with knowing that there isn't much you can do.

Ever since we moved into our new apartment, Casey the Beagle has been unhappy. Any change to a dog's routine can be traumatic, and as it turns out, it's been worse than we thought. Casey's never been a very barky dog, he'll bark when he's trying to protect us or hears something unfamiliar, but other than that, he's very quiet (which is rare in a Beagle). But we've found out that when we're gone, he's been barking his little head off, to the annoyance of our neighbors who sleep at strange hours due to their schedules.

Unfortunately, with my getting a new job, this is taking on an emergent property, since we'll now be out of the house more than ever, and at fairly early hours. We're taking fairly extreme measures to try to curb his barking, including getting him a static correction collar. The collar works for barking as a result of something like a knock at the door, but wasn't working terribly well for being left alone. It finally occured to me that it's a combination of stress and separation anxiety that's causing the problem.

I'm not sure if it's going to help, but we went out and bought him a larger crate, since his travel crate has gotten a bit small for him. We got a crate pad that has pillowed edges around the sides, put a T-Shirt of mine in there for him, and then gave him a bone filled with peanut butter. I then set my iPod voice recorder up and left for about forty-five minutes. He barked twice (probably being corrected by the collar), and then he was quiet.

Yesterday, he developed a nasty cough, and I immediately felt guilty about the collar. It was getting worse and worse every time he coughed until I finally panicked and called an emergency vet. Turns out that on his copious trips to the dog park, he's picked up a case of Kennel Cough. Not a lot we can do except wait it out, but we were told that we could give him a child's dose of Robitussin DM, and that should help.

Finally, it all clicked. Perhaps he's been getting sick and just didn't know how to tell us that he needed us around to reassure him? I try very hard to be a good dog owner, and to keep my puppy happy, and sometimes, there's just nothing I can because he can't tell me what's wrong.

Starting next week, I'm teaching that dog to talk. :)