Bath Time

Our Rhapsody may be small but she is 15 lbs of pure personality. Recently, her personality has come out during bath time. We try and bathe her every two to three weeks depending on how much time she spends outside. Rhapsody has gotten used to the routine of bath time and her memory has led to some difficulty lately. She's never been a big fan of her baths but tolerates them alright once she knows there's no escaping.

This past weekend, we saw several aspects of her personality come up during her bath time including her need to be in control, her stubbornness, melodramatic side, and ultimately her submissiveness. Matt and I had decided we were tired of her smell, and decided we needed to bathe her. I grabbed her shampoo and called her to come in from outside. She came running in when I called her, but after one glimpse of what I was holding, she turned around and ran right back out. The doggy door my parents gave us for Christmas has given Rhapsody a false sense of being in control, and she loves it! Having control over when she comes in and out has changed her life, and she gets very upset when that control is taken away from her. She will happily be napping on her bed, when she hears the back door being shut taking her control away and she will run right to you and give you the puppy dog eyes like she's saying, "How dare you close that door, what if I needed to go outside?" So, obviously she thinks that if she runs outside, Matt and I don't have any control over her anymore. Well, she was wrong. I set the shampoo down, went outside and sternly told Rhapsody to come inside. She sat and stared at me for awhile, but ultimately decided she needed to obey, so she ran inside as I praised her prematurely, because as soon as she got in the door, she ran full speed into our bedroom and straight under the bed. It took both of us staking out each side of the bed to trap her and pull her out. Matt was able to reach under and grab her and picked her up and took her into the bathroom and wisely shut the door behind him.

At that point, Rhapsody had figured out that she had lost the battle and surrendered by jumping right into the bathtub to endure her torture. And let me tell you, she lets us know how bad it really is to be bathed. She is very dramatic. She'll walk to the far end of the bathtub to avoid getting wet while at the same time lapping up some water. Occasionally, throughout the bath, she would growl/whimper/whine in a very pathetic way and every once in awhile she would start shivering. She never openly rebels or tries to dart out of the bathtub, but she subtly lets us know that she does not appreciate what we are doing. After the bath comes the blow dryer which surprisingly she tolerates better than the bath as long as we avoid aiming the dryer at her face. Again, she submits and lies down to accept the hair dryer, looking forward to the brushing that follows, which she does genuinely seem to enjoy. Once we start brushing her she'll just fall over on her side and sprawl out, so we don't miss a spot.

Rhapsody after her first bath. She looked like a wet rat

Oh Rhapsody, our lives would be so boring without you :)