When my best friend decided to adopt a new dog I thought it was a great idea.
When she decided to adopt a special-needs dog I thought it was a brave idea.
When she asked if I could watch her special needs dog for a few weeks I thought I would be able to handle it if she gave me enough instruction. However, I never could have anticipated how difficult it is to deal with a handicapped animal when you can’t communicate and you can barely even lift him. Mobility issues aside, she probably could have given me more information about the dog… Including his apparent hatred for central heating, cooling, and air quality control devices. Within the first few moments of having this pup at my house, all hell broke loose. I made the mistake of changing my thermostat settings so that the air-conditioning unit would kick into gear. It was feeling hot and stagnant in the house after carting the dog inside so I thought it was a good idea for some extra cooling power to handle the heat and humidity. Unfortunately, the dog vehemently disagreed with my desire for better indoor air quality. As soon as the air conditioner started running, the dog started flailing around wildly. I couldn’t get him to calm down no matter what I tried… Until the air conditioning unit stopped providing high-quality treated indoor air to the entire house. Suddenly, the dog calmed right down. For the past two weeks I’ve been unable to use my air conditioning system without having a chaotic disaster with my friend’s dog. I never knew that a dog could be so averse to a regular HVAC system… and I will never dogsit again.