In a moment of what was either brilliance or insanity, I turned to address the pack of preteen girls swarming in front of me. “Hey guys. I have an idea for a game...”

We were at a birthday party for a family member. It was getting late, the party was wrapping up, and I had wandered out to the backyard, where about half a dozen of my younger female cousins were playing. I sat down on the patio to observe. I wasn't sure what they were playing, but it involved a lot of screaming and giggling and running. I must have caught the tail-end of the game, because pretty soon, they started winding down.

They were getting bored.

Meet Friday, my nine-year-old shepherd mix. I adopted her when she was eight weeks old. She was my very first dog. In hindsight, I realize I should have gotten an older dog, but my family's thinking was that with a puppy, we could shape her behavior into whatever we wanted. Ha! What they don't tell you is that it's hard to shape a puppy's behavior when you don't really know what you're doing.

Hi. I'm new at Dog Star Daily, and I am honored to be here. For my first post, I figured I'd introduce you to The Dog That Started It All – and how I sort of failed at raising her.