My 6th Year with Hopper

These are the things that I have figured out about my dog Hopper in this last year of our being together. I try to get this published every year on the anniversary of him coming to be with me, April 7th 2017.

This year Hopper has figured out how to move through our crowded bedroom when I get ready to go to bed. When I lift up the dog gate at the doorway for him to enter, he goes about 4 feet inside the room. Then after I take my shoes off and put then higher off the floor so I don't have to bend over as far, I move to the foot of the bed and stand. Then he knows to move back to where I was standing initially, and then sits and waits for me to put of my pajamas and plug in my phone by my pillow. Sometimes I have to give him a slight hand gesture for him to know when to move, but I rarely have to do it now, its more of a custom on my part, as he is already in motion as soon as he sees me stop at the end of the bed. Then he waits for me to get into bed and get the covers pulled back to cover the bed before he climbs up onto the bed to lay down.

I have created a nice kennel to house my dogs when I am away on trips or have to work away from home for extended periods of time. The older bigger dog Pepper doesn't seem to mind and is happy when I come home to let him out, but Hopper is veRy vocal and sounds mad and he is rather loud for quite awhile actually barking at me, rather than trying to voice 'words' in his normal way of talk/complaining/verbalizing. It takes him several minutes to get back to his 'normal' self.