New Routine and Lunch with the Tonka Man

AP here:
Once again Tonka and I have settled into a new routine that now includes hanging out at lunchtime during the week.
Our day starts at either 3 or 5 depending on how well he sleeps during the night. The first thing is to express his bladder which can be done either on his side or standing.  Due to his inability to go to the bathroom on his own he needs to be manually expressed and also flipped over every 4 hours to prevent urinary infections and pressure sores.Scouts house has some great instructional videos on the subject and if you ever have to do this (hope you don't). You should also get your Veterinarian  to show you (hands on) because it is not as easy as it looks. It has taken me a month to finally get the hang of it and I really have to thank Carmel Berger from Greater Annapolis for helping us get it down.I also have to thank Tonka for being such a good boy because the minute he hears the pee pad crinkling he lays down and relaxes for me. Once that is taken care of  I sit with him and have my first cup of coffee and tickle his toes to make him move his legs. Then it is time to go for a walk so I help him get up and get him in his wheels. We typically stay close to home during the week since he is still building up strength in the wheels and I don't want to push him too much. We stop at the 2 closet bus stops so he can say hi to his kids and get some hugs and head pats. Once home it is breakfast time and then time to go back out and go to the bathroom. I will spare you the unpleasantness of making your dog poop but needless to say it is best to keep him on a routine so that's what we do. We then wheel back into where his cage used to be (had to take it down as it was too hard to get in and out of anymore) and again he is such a good boy I just say "get in your house" and he goes right to the corner. I then take him out of the wheels and get him situated for his morning nap.

I then get ready for work, express him once more and out the door I go. I have several cameras throughout the house so I can watch him during the day at work to see how he is doing. Lately since he has been more mobile and he sometimes turns himself over and scoots around a bit (all very good signs).

In about 4 hours he usually wakes up from his nap and starts listening to see if anyone is home. If he doesn't hear anyone he starts talking and getting antsy. So I leave work and drive home everyday at lunch to get him up and over to the water bowl, and then express him and flip him to his other side. Since I am there we have lunch together and then he settles down for his afternoon nap. Other than the nasty commute it makes for a nice break in my day.

In the evening I express him first thing when I get home and then get him in his wheels to take him out to the truck to go to the park.
Out to the truck - out of the wheels
Help him up the ramp - lay him in the truck
pack up the ramp and wheels
off to the park
get to the park- backup to a low point
take out the wheels and setup the ramp
climb in the truck and help him stand up
get back out of the truck and help him get down the ramp
express him
put him in the wheels
pack up the ramp
park the truck
walk around the park with his friends and when we get done we do it all in reverse.

Once home and back out of the truck and in the wheels we have dinner and then out to go potty for the evening.Then its into the TV room and packed in ice packs for the evening till bed time. At around 9 he starts talking and if I don't move fast enough to help him up to get to the other room for a drink he will attempt to get up on his own.

I help him to the water bowl and express him one last time for the night and get him comfortable on his memory foam bed. If it is a good night he sleeps for at least 3 hours before I hear him on the baby monitor whining for me to come flip him to his other side. Our journey keeps changing direction and we just go with the flow.

A Modified Normal

AP here:
So we started down this bumpy road 4 months ago and we have had to modify some things and our daily routine.





 This is the Tonka Cave constructed from 2 exercise pens and pvc pipe to make a 4x6 spacious place for him to lounge around in. It has 2 canine cooler pads for him to stay comfy on and he has room to stretch completely out.


Everything we need

 We have a multi purpose storage unit for medications, boots, duct tape, puppy pads etc. Note the camera to the left for all day monitoring of the Tonka Cave and the little white camera on the top corner which is one of 3 that are connected to the Lorex Snap baby video monitor. It has a small monitor unit that displays all the cameras with night vision. It is small enough to take to bed and be able to check on him where ever he is during the night

There are baby gates to keep him from trying to use the steps.

Ramp on the side of the house is now outfitted with commercial rubber mats with traction bumps and drain holes.

Sleep space with fleece blanky and toys. The fleece is great at keeping things from soaking the carpet if there is an accident. The dog bed in the back corner is actually a memory foam bed from bigdogbeds.com. and is comfortable enough for me to sleep on. I got it for my last Pyr and neither she nor Tonka would have anything to do with it so it has become mine to lay on when he is having a bad night and I end up sleeping next to him.

Our day now begins at 4:30am so that I have time to get him up and in his boot and stumping around the block. We usually have a little standoff on the corner where we would normally turn to go to the park since he still thinks we should be able to go that far. This is frustrating for both of us and neither of us really wins the battle. On good days he gets around fairly quick and gets done with his potty business for the morning. Bad days we stop a lot, standing in the cold, and when he will poop is any ones guess. Occasionally we run into his friend Marie and she walks with us for a while. Tonka adores her and it is much less of a fight with him when she is around. Then it’s up the ramp and into the kitchen for breakfast followed by a nap (him not me) while I get ready for work. Tonka eats from elevated bowls which are kept downstairs since that is where he used to eat and they don't fit real well in the kitchen. So for breakfast and dinner I have to go downstairs make his bowl and then carry it all upstairs to the kitchen. When he is done I have to carry it all back downstairs again which I don't mind doing - I would do anything for my boy it's just the time factor for everything has changed. What once was something so simple that took a few minutes is now a whole process that adds time to the day. You don't realize that until you have something like this happen. Your normal routine gets changed and the amount of time for that routine has to be changed as well.

Then it’s a fight, and more often than not a bribe to get him back down the ramp to go potty and into the Tonka cave. Some mornings that becomes CM's job especially if I go in early.

I can monitor him on the Tonka cage cam from my phone and my PC at work, as can my parents so we know what he is up to during the day (usually just sleeping). Mid-day my mom or dad comes by to let him out and he hangs out either in the yard, on the porch or out front sniffing the breezes and perhaps taking another nap. It is apparently very tiring being a Pyrenees.

In the afternoon/evening we take our second stump around the neighborhood and again hope that all potty business is taken care of. Then we stump up the up the ramp and in to the house to take a nap before dinner. Once dinner is done its time for another nap before he gets his frozen peanut butter Kong treat. We play for a while with some of his toys or he tries to attack feet or bathrobe sleeves depending on his mood.

Tonka likes to sleep downstairs but he starts off upstairs which means anytime between 11 and 2 he will wake me up by barking and want to go downstairs. So out the door into the cold and down the ramp we go to get from point A to point B (really love this when it is cold and rainy). He tends to pee while he is walking down the little hill to the back door and that means it gets all over his front legs so I have to wash them once we get in the door. It would be much easier if we could start off downstairs in the beginning of the evening but Mr. "creature of habit" is not fond of that. Once downstairs he settles onto his fleece blanket and goes back to bed unless it is a whiny kind of night and then he will whine and cry and want me to stay with him. It is very rare I get a full night’s sleep anymore - usually the night when he has had PT he sleeps at least till 4. The therapists have given me some things to do with his leg that might help settle him down for the night so we are going to try those tonight.

One modified day at a time......