animal
Dispatch the Bichon dozing
I know I’ve talked about this before but my Bichon Frise Dispatch doesn’t travel well. We went home (Missouri) for a week recently, for those who don’t know my husband is working in TX and so we are staying in our camper (don’t feel sorry for me it’s nicer than the house). When my Bichon Frise Dispatch was a baby I lost him (literally) in the pickup, it was a crew cab and somehow he got wedged behind the back seat and I couldn’t find him. So I spoiled the dog (yes that’s the only reason) by letting him sit on my lap while I was driving. For some reason he never went with me in the car but then I started driving the car more when he got older (husband was @ home more so I couldn’t drive the NEW pickup, had to drive the OLD car 
), Dispatch didn’t fit on my lap between the steering wheel and me when he was grown, well he does fit but it’s dangerous and he would like to navigate and maybe steer. I also got nervous about the air bags if I did have a wreck and could imagine one squished puppy. So I started making him stay in the back seat. (actually the first 2 years of Dispatches life I didn’t go many places because we had our office @ home) The back seat didn’t work, he whined, this is the end of 2005 mind you. I bought a car seat, the dog tried to hang himself from it, whined and could escape from it with a harness on. Plus the doggie car seat was harder to move if humans actually wanted to ride in my car than a regular child car seat. So I bought a dog harness, I didn’t use it though because we had Mugsey (our lab who passed away) by then and I didn’t think it was fair that Dispatch had to be strapped in and Mugsey could roam. Mugsey slept in the car or truck, he would wake up when we stopped, period, no problem, he slept. So on long trips previously when my husband and Dispatch had to ride together the back seat was always full of people or things so Dispatch rode on my lap, that’s all Dispatch asks is my lap. OK, he would like to ride on Daddies lap if he is driving but my lap is fine. He will sleep. This trip home Daddy was driving and decided it was time Dispatch learned discipline (for some reason people say Dispatch is the most spoiled dog in the world, trust me he isn’t, but he’s running like 100th probably, I tell my husband and kids if I spoiled the dog then they are probably horribly spoiled also which makes them shut up temporarily).
Bichon Bedhead
So Daddy makes Dispatch stay in the back seat, I’ve put some suitcases in the back seat and a pillow so the dog can look out. He tries to get in the front seat for about 700 of the 743 miles home, he might have slept 15 minutes, he only whined every few minutes the last 200 miles or so. We got home and I told my husband we should turn around drive back to TX and see if the dog EVER gave up, maybe on the return trip or like before 2000 miles the dog would sleep? The dog spent the majority of the time he wasn’t trying to get in the front seat with his back turned toward us. I would have thought this meant my dog was seriously psychologically deranged since he was looking @ the back seat, it just seems like sitting facing forward would be more entertaining? BUT if dogs turn their back on you it’s the ultimate sign of disdain and indifference to you. So we noticed this behavior and I would ask my husband if he couldn’t feel the ice and aloofness coming from the back seat. Then Dispatch would turn around and try to get in the front seat again.
We made the trip back in two smaller trips, Dispatch was better. Not good but he gave up fairly quickly, but then he started again. If my husband would tell him to get down (husband meant get down from trying to do a sneak attack over the back of the seats) Dispatch would get down on the floor for a minute, sit, and then get back up and stand behind the seat on his hind legs. He eventually decided he could rest on the hump in the middle of the car and face backward by resting on the dog crate (nice thought I know a dog crate) sitting on the back seat. Husband eventually tried to make dog get down with his elbow between the seats, not hitting but pushing him down. Dispatch finally got the idea and lay down in the back seat on his pillow, but it would only last maybe 10 minutes and he had to check and see if we had maybe come to our senses and changed our minds, then we got the back to us ice treatment, then he’d try to mountain climb over the seat, tunnel under the seats, face away from us, he finally decide when we said Dispatch lay down we meant HIM and weren’t suddenly telling each other to lay down and laid down.
Bichon Sleeping In Chair
This is why the bichon is so tired, it’s been two days and he is still sleeping a great deal. I do really think we should nominate Dispatch for most stubborn dog? I mean he hasn’t been able to ride on my lap while I was driving for like 4 years except on rare occasions when the car was full or I had a moment of total weakness which probably hasn’t happened 5 times. But yet he hasn’t given up. If we went out today and drove 700 miles we would have to start @ square one, hopefully he would get the idea quicker but he is determined if nothing else, we know he’s not behaving but he is almost remarkable in his resolution and drive. Oh yeah, Daddy tried to make Dispatch not make the dying banshee noise when Mama would get out of the car too. Dispatch got quieter but people still stared like we were torturing a small child because that’s what it sounds like. So is your dog more stubborn than mine? Has anyone solved this problem or one like it?
The funniest thing that ever happened with Dispatch being possessed about being on my lap happened when I was driving one of our employees home on a back road. The employee had his grandson with him and he was on his lap in the front seat, gimme a break it was a BACK road. I noticed the little boy who was like 4 or 5 watching Dispatch leaning on the steering wheel (it was mostly a straight gravel road). When we got to our destination the little boy suddenly turned to me and said “when did you teach your dog to drive?” He was totally serious so I told him I taught the dog to drive a few months ago while trying to keep a straight face along with grandpa. Poor boy is like 10 now and thinks he saw a driving dog.
This is a test from TC, trying to get rpx to work.