I Thought I Knew A Lot About Dogs...But I Didn't Know This One

When we made the decision to add another animal to our menagerie, I was a little nervous. I knew training a puppy is tough, but we have five adults and a teenager who loves animals in our house so I thought we could share the load. 

And for the most part, we have.

I got my first dog when I was thirteen and between me and my mom, we kind of trained her. She was a little yappy thing, but we loved her and she lived seventeen years. This dog--a poodle--would require more work. They're just smarter and I knew we would have to stay on top of things. We've had Bec the Dog for about six weeks and we've had more pluses than minuses (the pictures show how much he's grown week-to-week...). He is smart which causes other problems, but when he's sweet, he'll melt your heart.

Today we have weapons in the dog-training arsenal not available to a thirteen-year old in the late 1970s--the internet and cable TV. Those two things mean all the collective dog-training knowledge in the world is accessible to us. You'd think we'd be set and have the best-trained dog in existence.

Funny thing about knowledge...sometimes you can have too much.

I have been constantly surprised at how much a puppy acts like a baby human. They're curious. They don't sleep when you want them to. They're always getting into things they shouldn't. And just like there are books on how to raise a child, there are books and shows and podcasts and blogs on how to raise a dog. What drove me and my wife crazy about the child-raising books is how they said by just doing A, B, and/or C, all your baby problems will be fixed. I suppose they do this to sell books. We were much more successful (and sane...) when we used the books as suggestions and not as gospel. 

And besides, none of the people writing baby books knew our kids.

And none of the people writing puppy books knows our dog.

I'm not saying their information is not helpful. I just mean I have to be careful with expectations. 

For now, we'll continue watching the shows and the blogs and the podcasts. There's a lot of information out there. But, we'll also keep watching and learning from our dog. After all, without him, we'd be watching something else...like Hallmark movies.