Last night Eric and I took our puppy, Ramsey, to her first obedience-training class. As I sat there and listened to all the different techniques, I began to feel overwhelmed. We practiced sitting, standing, down, recall, and waiting. In my opinion, I have the cutest, sweetest, smartest pup on the planet, so I became frustrated with myself when she wouldn't do certain tasks just right. in my mind, I had to have her complete each task perfectly before the end of class and I could certainly not have the trainer see her not perform perfectly! As my wonderful husband always does, he reminded me … [Read more...]

For years, I wanted a Golden Retriever puppy. At work, I would sit and daydream about how wonderful it would be to have that sweet bundle of puppy fur. We would get up, eat, cuddle, sleep some more, cuddle some more, and then go for a walk. Day after day, month after month, I dreamed of this puppy. When we finally called our breeder for an initial interview, I became teary-eyed. My dream was finally coming true! As I type this, my precious dream is whining her head off! She's beautiful, but so much work. Some nights as she's whining, I lie in bed and ask myself, "What was I thinking?" … [Read more...]