Plans and Boundaries

 When we first adopted Samantha, we talked it out, got on the same page, and decided what kind of dog owners we were going to be.  We weren't going to be the type who referred to their dog like it was their child, and she wouldn't be allowed on any of the furniture because of my allergies. 

It was a long drive back from the shelter, and I remember looking in the back seat at that little ribby dog and wondering "what have we done?  I don't know anything about dogs!"

I had to work that weekend, but my husband was off.  That's why we picked a Saturday.  My "weekend" was Monday, Tuesday, so someone would be home all day with the new dog for the first four days.

So I went to work, and within the first few hours my husband sent me a pic with the message, "What do I do?"

That silly little dog had curled up on the couch.  "Well, push her off and tell her no!" I said.

"But... she's cute..."

"Well, I guess she's allowed on the furniture then."

One of Sammy's favorite things to do is snuggle with us on the couch, so I'm glad now that we didn't enforce that rule.  That first Christmas, we didn't get any presents for each other, just a bunch of stuff for the dog, and we even signed a few tags with "from Mom and Dad."

I guess you never know what kind of dog parents you're going to be until you become them.

It was a similar story with Zorro.  

We fostered him for a while to see how he and Sammy would get along.  There was a little drama the first couple days, but we decided we would be assertive and consistent.

The dogs would eat and sleep in their kennels until they got used to each other.  Well, the first night, Sammy whined so much we had to let her out or none of us would've slept.  She was used to sleeping on our bed.  Zorro barely moved that first night, head down in his kennel, expressionless.

The next day Zorro decided he liked laying outside the kitchen door next to the breakfast table.  That was his spot.  He whined and scratched at his kennel that night until we caved and let him out into the basement. 

About five minutes passed and we heard a loud clack as he knocked the gate over and bounded up the stairs.  We found him laying outside the kitchen door looking up as if to say, "I told you this is my spot."

So, remembering our decision to be assertive and consistent, we did the obvious thing and completely threw out our previous plans, and brought Zorro's bed and favorite rug upstairs to "his spot."

He slept there every night for the next several weeks.

Sure, it's important that dogs learn to listen to their people, but sometimes the people just need to listen to their dogs.