An Interesting Turn of the Tables

Our dog is naughty.  We love her, but she is naughty.  No two ways about it.  When she gets a little too feisty, the kids will open the front door and yell at her to go outside.  Just often enough to make them feel like it's an effective punishment, she obliges them, but probably only when she was planning to go outside anyway.  If dogs can actually plan things.  Which I'm pretty sure Cassie can because here's her fun new trick:  If she doesn't like the way we're acting or to punish us for some perceived injustice such as sitting in "her" spot (which is pretty much the entirety of both couches) she tries to put us out.  Oh, I'm being totally serious here.  She'll go stand in front of the door and look at us, which is how she has trained us to let her outside.  When one of us goes over and opens the door, she'll back up, crouch down and bark.  If the person steps out the door, she stands up and stops barking.  Step back in and she's back on the offensive.   NO JOKE!  We laugh and laugh every time this happens (daily).  She's a naughty little brat . . . and we love her all the more for it.  Sometimes I fear that we have ruined her by letting her get away with that sass.  Maybe no one else would have her, but she's ours and she fits right in here.  And, really, why should we raise our puppy any different than our children?! 

(For the record, our children are all very nice, mostly polite, well adjusted children in public.  Sure, they get a bit sassy at home, but laughing at that ridiculous behavior seems to get much better results than yelling.  I truly believe it helps them to see the absurdity of that kind of attitude when we respond with amusement rather than anger.  But this is a post about my crazy dog, not my philosophy on parenting.  The end.)