Dogs

Thought I would give you all a change of pace from my spiritual quest:)  I have been writing my first "graduate level" paper and I am worn out!

So my dog Little Bit...she is 14# and a rescued Schnauzer.  She was a "puppy mill momma" and was quite traumatized when I got her.  She didn't know how to go up stairs (she still is quite clumsy), she didn't know what grass was, and she didn't know how to cross a threshold.  When I would take her out in the yard to pee, she would look at me like, "What?  What is this stuff?  You want me to pee? here?" and she would go to the sidewalk...somewhere concrete, and pee.

In the 2 years that I have had her, she has made amazing progress.  She LOVES to run around my yard, up and back, as if to show off.  "Mom, watch how fast I am!"  We walk every day and she pulls on the leash, rather than laying down in fear.  She is working on training me in how to play.  All the dog games I know, she doesn't, and we haven't quite figured out what to do.  She does race around the house in circles, running under my bed and peaking out from under the bed skirt.

However.  I made the HUGE mistake of letting her try whatever food I was eating.  She will eat bananas, apples, carrots, beans...in fact, the only food I have seen her NOT eat is celery, or anything with Balsamic vinegar on it.  So.  She now EXPECTS to be given some of what I have and her begging has gotten quite obnoxious.  So I stopped feeding her tidbits...and she started barking at me.  My own dog is giving my attitude.  My daughter didn't give me attitude, but my dog is.  Must be paybacks.

"Well!"  I thought.  This is not going to continue.  I will tell her no or ignore her, and yes, she did finally stop and go away.  But only after she went where I couldn't see her and pee'd on the carpet.  The little shit!  So I have yet to figure out how to fix this little problem.  At the moment she is going into her kennel in the basement when I start to fix a meal.  What a pain in the butt.  And the worst part?  It's my own damn fault.