At my dog daycare facility, I often find owners struggling to help their dog maintain a sit during greetings, or apologizing for their excited behavior in the daycare lobby. They seem to really want the dog to come into the facility in a calm, respectable manner. This same scene takes place on sidewalks, in parks, at the vet’s office and in homes across the country.

If I’d gone to puppy classes, I’d not have chewed your glasses

Or caused you such great pain

Oh I woulda been a good dog, and I coulda been a good dog

If I only had been trained.

I would not be just a nothin’, my mouth all full of stuffin’

From your new couch and chair

I’d behave – you must believe me

Don’t you know you’re s’posed to leave me
 In my crate when you’re not there.

(chorus)

Oh gee, I’m running free – I slipped out of the door

You can chase me but you’ll never catch me cause


I just returned from a training appointment with one of my favorite clients. Cory and Carol are a forty-something couple who have a twelve-year-old son and a Golden Retriever named Vinnie. Perhaps it’s my Brooklyn roots, but the dog’s name strikes me as funny and adorable. The dog is both.

A few years ago, I brought an adolescent dog home from the shelter. You know the type – part beagleshepherdspaniellabrador. A robin stalking, trail sniffing animal who liked to herd birds and paddle water out of her bowl as fast as I could put it in. She was a four-legged piece of imperfection with soulful eyes and poetic ears, and while furtively stealing my socks out of the laundry basket, she also stole my heart.