This week is all about Tucker and how I went about moving my elderly canine best friend. I was definitely worried as to how he was going to handle this big change in his life and schedule. I’m so thrilled at how it turned out and hope that it helps anyone else moving their furry best friends.

Let me start by saying that I never thought that I would get to write this particular blog post. I am beyond amazed at how well Tucker handled moving and if this post helps anyone else with elderly dogs then that’s my goal! Tucker is going to be 15 years old in November which puts him in the elderly category for dogs, just no one tell him that. Health wise, he is doing great! He has a few bumps, warts and spots that I monitor. I make all of his food myself (I call it puppy-loaf) and have for years while keeping Iams dry food out for him to graze on during the day.

It snowed during my move in days in mid-April!

Pre-Moving // Had I been in a different stage in my life when I first got Tucker I probably would have gotten him trained to be a therapy dog, but I was 18 and headed to college. He has always had the ability to adapt his personality to whoever he is with depending on who needs him. Whether it’s an autistic dog, an elderly person, a puppy or even an elderly dog. It was always an amazing talent of his to watch. He was always patient and brought much needed happiness to those that needed him. As for me, he calls me Mom. I’ve always been the one he misbehaves with. Over the past couple of years his personality changed a bit and I just thought it was because of him getting older. Because of this change, I no longer trusted him around children or even other dogs and kept a close watch on him. He became aggressive with food, even biting me a couple of times. Tucker’s resting nature was more hyper at all times, always on alert. That was his norm for almost a couple of years now. Again, I simply thought this was because he was getting older. I say all of this so that you can see the change in his personality after moving.

Tucker’s toy bin and quilt. The toys are still in this corner under the sewing table. The quilt is now on my bed. Yes, he really does have that many toys!

I was clearly unpacking the kitchen. Dinner in a casserole dish! Tuck got the styrofoam take-out container!

Moving // Tucker was actually the first to move in! I’ll be honest, I didn’t do any research prior to moving in on how to do it. I trusted what I knew about my guy and my instincts. I had my Jeep packed up with Tucker’s things the day that I signed, so that afterwards I could go straight to the condo and unpack him. I put his toys where they were to reside permanently and kind of dumped them over. Spread out his blanket, beds, dishes etc. I made sure not to wash anything of his prior but to have his scent all over the condo. Once my cleaning party had left, my Parentals dropped Tucker off for me so we could spend a couple hours together alone. We ended up eating dinner on the floor together since I was still unpacking dishes from the kitchen, it was kind of hilarious. I have always had Tucker on a schedule and this was the start of throwing him off of a completely different path for him, but he took it beautifully. The first couple nights we spent on the couch in the living room since I didn’t have a bed yet, he had a whole new neighborhood with new sounds and new furry visitors. The best part of all of this was that I was working from home which made this so much easier on him!

The first couple of nights we had to sleep on the couch while we waited for my mattress to be delivered. He seemed to be ok with the change.

Every room I painted he worked REAL hard at helping! 😉

Post-Moving // After only a couple weeks post-move in my family was shocked at Tucker’s personality change! They kept asking if I drugged him. I kept calling him “Beach Tuck” because he was so relaxed, laid back and seemed as if he had just gotten back from a beach vacation. Tucker is no longer hyper and not at all aggressive with food. It’s almost like the last couple of years never happened. The secret? I think he’s just happy! He’s back on a schedule, I’m working from home, he’s lost a couple of much needed pounds and his personality is better than ever.

Funny Moments // He has definitely kept me laughing with new discoveries since we moved in. The first one was when he discovered how to open a shower curtain. He’s 12lbs y’all! I’ve always had a shower door and I guess he just had to investigate this new curtain thing. I couldn’t stop laughing when his head poked into my shower for a couple of days. Thankfully, his curiosity didn’t last long. I could have done without waking me up at 6am because he discovered his shadow due to the sunlight. We didn’t have the morning sun before. Took me a little bit to explain that one to him. Similar to the shadow, Tucker has discovered my full-length mirror in the bedroom and I am often finding him watching himself in it. Tucker LOVES yoga! He will actually join me on a mat and mimic my moves as much as he can, it’s really funny. Well, I haven’t been doing yoga lately I’ve been doing Barre classes. The first couple of Barre classes had Tucker running from almost being kicked. Let’s just say he’s not thrilled about Barre unless it’s floor work on leg day. Then he likes to join me distract me with lots of kisses since he’s not great at the leg lifts himself. Last week I left the room for a minute and made the mistake of leaving the remote on the couch. Somehow, Tucker managed to turn my Netflix audio to French. It took me two days, but I finally figured out how to change it back. Let’s just say remotes have now been placed out of paw’s reach.