Family Room Dog Friendly Fails Of The Weekend

This weekend we got a new T.V. We finally stepped into the year 2000 and got a flat screen for family room. It’s not our first flat screen, we have others, but those are in rooms that we don’t sit in often. Go figure.

In order to put our new T.V. up we had to make a lot of changes to the family room.

We had to move furniture around, take furniture out, clean walls and wash floors. It was exhausting and disgusting.

Have you ever moved an entertainment center only to find that you had dust and fur bunnies the size of a large cat living behind there? OMG. It was bad.

Anyway, as we made the changes I had the dogs in the back of my mind.

Sherman doesn’t like change so I was trying to be super careful not to alter his normal napping areas. While we were doing the changes he was actually having a minor panic attack.

Leroy doesn’t care about change but he also doesn’t observe it so I was trying to be careful not to put anything in areas where it never was before in fear that Leroy would walk into it or knock it over.

Here’s some of the thoughts that went behind the move and if they passed or failed the dog’s approval over the weekend.

Wires. We’re using our fireplace as a temporarily holding spot of the new T.V. until the new one arrives. This is leaving a lot of important wires that are attached to a rather large T.V.  laying off to the side so the first thing of importance was to tuck those safely behind the fireplace so that no Newfie legs or tails could make contact with them. We had an issue with Leroy’s tail and lights around the fireplace this year. His happy tail actually took out 2 strings of lights and a dozen ceramic snowman, twice this holiday. Weekend update: Pass. So far so good with this although Leroy has managed to get pretty close because there’s just enough room for the tip of his back paw to smash in the small opening where the wires are tucked.

Table placement. We moved a table to give the boys more room to sprawl out in their favorite area of the family room. This meant moving a table with a broken leg to a more vulnerable spot. Careful placement was given so that the broken leg was placed where it was less likely that Leroy’s body could make contact with it. Weekend update: Fail. Leroy has decided to wedge his body in the little nook which places his body right next to the broken leg.

Don’t touch. Sherman has 2 spots that he lays in the family room. We made sure that those spots were left open and not tainted in any way. We actually gave him more room in the one spot and I’m still trying to determine if he’s happy about that or not. The bad thing is that it gives Leroy more opportunity to lay next Sherman giving him some more uncomfortable moments in life. Weekend update: Pass. Since Leroy has decided to wedge himself into the nook, Sherman is safe because Sherman would never wedge himself into such a tiny area.

T.V. placement. Perhaps one of the most important steps. Put the T.V. up high enough that a sitting Newfie can not block the screen. Leroy is notorious for sitting right in front of the T.V. when he wants something. It’s usually at the best part of the movie or the one segment of the news that you’ve been waiting to come on.  He’ll sit there until  you give him what he wants too. Weekend update: Fail. Apparently Leroy’s head can block any size TV no matter how high it is.

So my passes and fails tied for the weekend. All the thought and effort that I put behind the move was crushed by Leroy and his ability to constantly prove me wrong. And I still can’t get over that he’s wedging himself into that little nook.

Have you ever made changes to a room in your house that you thought would benefit your dog? Did they approve?

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