Puppy Love

For those of you who don't already know, my son is in love with my shih-tzu. I first noticed this one day when Lauren was visiting. Brian broke into uncontrollable tears for no apparent reason. After checking him for signs of hunger, wetness, pain, sleepiness, etc., we finally deduced that the crying had been a result of Ruben ignoring him. Brian had been sitting on the floor in his room trying with all of his might to get to Ruben, or at least to get Ruben's attention. However, no amount of cooing would persuade my stubborn-ass dog to pay attention to the poor child.

This puppy love has continued since that day. Brian thinks Ruben is hysterical. Rather than being afraid of Ruben's barks, Brian laughs uncontrollably whenever he hears the shrill sound. And if Brian is lucky enough to be within reachable range WATCH OUT RUBEN because Brian has grabbed of Ruben's tail quicker than you can say ruff!

All of this is pretty sad considering that Ruben wants nothing to do with Brian. Ruben has adjusted to Brian being in the house in that he keeps a safe distance, and basically ignores the baby whenever possible. He is still not over the fact that he's not my only baby anymore. It's so bad that we've even tossed around the idea of getting a puppy so that Brian will have a dog that actually pays attention to him to play with. This is most likely NOT going to happen :)

Since Brian has this unwavering affection for Ruben, I decided it would be to my benefit to use Ruben as my assistant when doing physical therapy exercises with Brian. Since Brian's neck is tight, we have to encourage him to look to the left as often as possible. He even has to lay on the exercise ball and practice pushing up on his arms while looking to the left. So, I make it a point to position Brian so that he has to look to the left to see Ruben in any situation. Ruben enjoys this because he gets played with more often as my usual tactic for keeping Ruben to Brian's left is to throw a toy to Brian's left over and over again.

Some dogs are trained to be seeing eye dogs. My shih-tzu is a physical therapy dog! Here's a picture from last night of Ruben assisting. He's looking up at the ball I am holding over his head. Thanks to Lauren for getting this shot!