Martha is naughty. There's no question.
But she's a puppy. And we were all puppies at one point.
To Martha, everything is new and immediate. It is exploration and learning, cleverly disguised by Mother Nature's Department of Instinct and Behavior Development, as a playful game. Oh, they're crafty bureaucrats, with their destroy-the-houseshoe and maybe-I-can-just-eat-my-poo tricks.
I can't get angry with her. I can be a stern teacher, but I don't have to be overly annoyed. Of course, puppies will push the boundaries. They learn from it. I don't think there's any species of our kingdom that knows the difference between right and wrong from birth.
Take Zane, for example. As he has grown and matured over the past 5+ years, I have watched and guided. Admittedly, I used to get annoyed with him as he learned yes from no, need from want. It took a while for my Let-Him-Learn epiphany to occur, something which made me realize my annoyance was unnecessary and misguided.
What I was really angry about was that my carefully ordered notion of parenting and partnership was being tampered with, and I hadn't put together a Plan B. Unfortunately, Zane's mum got caught by the gravity of the chaos.
Lord, the apologies. All heartfelt, and all very necessary.
Maybe a puppy training school before you lose all your shoes? :)
Posted by: John | January 23, 2009 at 08:49 AM