Cookie of Katonah

The couch is a no-no….but outside furniture is okay.  Raising a puppy means figuring out your rules as you go along. 

We have three couches in our house currently.  Two are well-worn and have survived the messy infancy and toddler-hoods of both our kids. So while Cookie wouldn’t do much damage to those, it was our desire to NOT have her jump on our nice new light-beige (!!!) couch that we’re quite fond of that cemented our belief Cookie should stay down on the ground when in the house.  We also want her to have good manners when visiting other people’s homes as well.  Don’t feel too sorry for Cookie though – she has two very plush doggie-beds and many doggie mats around the house to relax on.

Other rules we’ve had to figure out: To feed table scraps or not?  (We really avoid giving her our food, but are pretty liberal with the doggie-treats and peanut butter.  We’ll make an exception at times like Thanksgiving.) Is it okay to let Cookie bring her plush toys to play with outside?  (I let her win that one and then occasionally throw them all in the washer and start them over again back in the house.) How about chewing old shoes and socks we really don’t wear anymore? She so enjoys that!  (Same thoughts as the couch-logic, no, because impossible for her to discern which shoes and socks are okay to wreck and which ones are not.) 

My take on my 7-month old puppy is that she does have a pretty good idea at this stage in the game what the right behaviors for her are in most situations, and that she knows from our reaction when she’s made a mistake.  But like a very young child, it’s often hard for her to exercise the self-control to be good.  So it’s up to us to continue to show her the way, with lots of love and consistency in our messages to her.  

How about you, fellow dog lover?  What are your rules for your pup, and the ones you are willing to bend?   Would love to hear from you!

Warmly, Diana

This entry was posted on August 7, 2012 at 3:04 pm and is filed under From the Puppy-Mommy, Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.