Dissipating patience

There's my little boy that I am Mommy to, but then there is the dog.  The latter, not by choice.

I am trying real hard, and have tried hard to be patient with our dog, but she is trying my patience.

She is allergic to Bermuda grass, that is the grass in NC that covers 90% of yards when you're a middle income family.  She licks her paws all day, like it's her job from June through October. 
We've done everything to help her, but our dog is also very spoiled and very much a "Daddy's" girl.  She doesn't listen to me, and I've been told it's because I am not nice to her.  I am not mean to her at all, I just don't shower her with affection and don't give her the run of the house, which her Daddy gave her both (attention and household reign) until I came along in 2006.  Since then she no longer frequents the second floor and she doesn't lounge on the couches, unless it is her couch. 

It's sad, but I've learned that the more attention I pay to our dog, the more needy she becomes, and that is very difficult to handle her with a baby.  So, my husband tells me to ignore her and let her be, which is very hard when all you hear day-in and day-out is "lick-lick-slurp." 

I feel bad for the dog only because she is suffering from allergies.  But then I don't feel that bad because I am deathly allergic to her, and in order to make living with her feasible I am on allergy medication 24/7/365.  And it's not just the casual, once in awhile watery, itchy eyes; runny nose and sneezing; and scratchy throat issues, but it includes a dermatitis allergy, which goes full force once she licks me or rubs against me (saliva and dander).  It is bad.  The unfortunate aspect of it all is that our son has the dermatological problem.  We get licked, and we swell up like red balloons in that area.  It's terrible, but that's the price we pay.

I can deal with this and some thousand of other issues.  I am not the easiest person to live with, I know that for a fact.  Today, though, I lost the little patience I had left. 

Every day, any time before I leave the house, I ask and recommend the dog to 'go potty.'  She rarely does, but rather jumps on her couch for her treat.  Well, no dice for the potty today.  I left at 11:20 AM to go the pool.  No worries.

Then I got home just 2 hours later (and when I worked she would hold her bladder for 10 hours straight) to find a massive pile of sh!t by the back door.  No big deal, but this is the second time she did this today.  We woke up to another massive sh!t by the kitchen table/den doorway.  Worse, she then, when I was home, stepped in it (because I brought her to the door to make her go out to go potty), and proceeded to run around the house tracking sh!t everywhere.

I had to put her outside, put my son down for a nap, and then clean up the kitchen floors and rugs since my son just started crawling and always has his fingers in his mouth after he crawls about.  I was, and still am, pissed.

Realistically, the dog is acting out because she is not getting attention, and her Daddy has now started to put his foot down with regard to her behavior.  (Even though she hasn't been listening to me for years, this is a new mode of action in becoming belligerent for Dad, and he isn't defending her defiant behavior anymore.)

I am trying to be patient.  I like the dog (to some degree), don't get me wrong, if I didn't I wouldn't worry about the chewing and biting her paws, but at the same time, she is blatantly disrespectful too, and, for that, I can't stand her.  She just can't be a normal obedient dog.  She acts consistently like a spoiled, selfish child. 

There's not much left to say...ther's no changing the situation...it is what it is until time expires.  Until then I guess I will continue to vaccum each day, pick dog hair off my clothes, take dog hair out of my son's mouth, spot clean the poop stains on the carpet, deodorize the place, and continue my medicines so that I don't blow up like a porcupine.