Guilty as charged! The kitty door lives on the bathroom door and when one of my humans goes in there, I want to be in there too! It doesn’t matter where I am in the house or what I’m doing, if I hear one of them go into the loo, I am THERE!

As I’ve written before, I’ve lived with cats.

Both Fatboy and Littleman (pictured) are now in whatever represents kitty heaven (catnip and forbidden furniture?). But when they lived here with us, we’d all be in that bathroom, if allowed, when the humans were doing the doo.

Now, I know if you’re reading this, you want to know why. What is the fascination? And for both cats and dogs to exhibit the same behavior, it’s a bit mind-boggling. Well, I’ve got nothing for you, sisters and brothers. If you think you have the reason why, I’d love to hear it. Or if you are guilty of shoving your way into the loo, I’d love to hear your motivation.

You’ll have to excuse me for now. I must click down the hall to stick my nose through that little flap to say hellooooooo.

With social media being all the rage, even dogs like me can have our own little part of the interwebs. How does that relate to being a Chessie? Roll with me homies…

My breed is fiercely loyal – we are a one family dog. We protect and love our family, whatever that may be. I’ve been raised with cats and kids, so I’ve been socialized to accept and love them. Socializing a dog means to introduce them to other dogs, animals and people. It can also mean to expose them to different social situations. When a dog is socialized, we remain calm and polite in most situations. It is essential to socialize Chesapeakes from the get-go of puppyhood. Our Chessie history has placed us with just one person, usually a hunter, and that mentality is ingrained in our independent brains.

When we meet another dog for the first time, we’ll make quick introductions (yeah, you know how we do it.) After that, it’s like the other dog doesn’t really exist. If the other dog wants to play, we’ll go along, but we’re always looking to see what our main peeps are doing. We won’t engage unless we’re the dominating kind.

Without socialization, meeting other dogs and humans can be a terrible experience. Chessies will either be excessively submissive or the completely obnoxious A-Dog. So, bring us out. Introduce us around and we’ll show you that quirky, silly and very active doggie that make humans marvel at our positive energy.

I was made to live with two cats. They were full grown and had seniority in the house. I was just a puppy and thought they were the coolest toys in the house. But with guidance from my humans, I learned to treat them as part of our pack. We learned to respect each other and not eat each other’s food (well, most of the time.)

One caveat to be aware of… keep the kitty poop away from us doggies. It is a delicacy that we cannot resist.

And with high regard for the honorable Dr. Venkman, it doesn’t have to be mass hysteria. We can just be.

Here endeth the doggie lesson – woof!

Hey! That’s my head right there.
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