Always Good, But Now...WOW

Right from the day she came to live with us, December 28, 2006, Astrid was what would generally be considered a 'good dog'. As I already noted, someone had loved and worked with her at one time so I have no idea how she ended up in a shelter. She came with undeserved 'baggage' though. She was labeled a jumper at the shelter with them saying she jumps fences and runs away. I'm sure this was enough for her to be rejected by potential homes. It's been almost two years now and believe me, Astrid is no jumper. Other than that, they didn't seem to know much about Astrid and she was just one of the homeless. Astrid's picture here is the one that appeared in PetFinder on the internet. She was at the Santa Cruz Humane Society in Nogales, AZ.

Astrid had self confidence. Nothing scared her and she wasn't 'needy' meaning she didn't demand our attention every moment. This was one of the things on our list of what we were looking for in a dog. Strange, but I can't remember the other stuff on the list. Astrid must have met or exceeded all of our desires. A dog's personality needs to match what an individual desires in a dog and our match was made in heaven.

It's true that we develop patience and wisdom as we get older. With our new dog, I wanted to right all the wrongs I had done with the training of the 5 dogs that had come into our lives over the years. Not that we didn't enjoy one another, the other dogs and us, but we never really knew how to teach. Maybe the internet has made the difference in making information readily available on dog training and it's many methods. That, and having patience and wisdom that comes with my years.

Last night we took Astrid out in the car at night, something she never gets to do, and took her to the Petsmart that just opened in the neighborhood. She was excited. It looks different to me at night with the lights and all, so I'm sure it was quite an experience for her. She reminded me of a little kid, and occasionally started to pull this way or that, so we had to just sit down and collect ourselves for a moment a couple of times. This seems to break her focus and brings her back to me and the task at hand...navigating the store in a well mannered way. The way I do this is to say "Okay, Astrid, sit. Now think about what you are doing". I know better, I think, but I'll be darned if she doesn't look like she's sitting there thinking!