I think there’s no such thing as a perfect anything, person, dog, cat, etc. And this especially holds true when rearing puppies. I don’t talk too much about the issues I have to work on with Oz, because they seem manageable, but we have problems just like everybody else.

I worked with him not to be a counter surfer, but didn’t think about sitting around the table eating dinner. A couple of weeks ago I took him over to a friend’s house and her father was eating dinner at the table. She said to let him off the leash and I no sooner unhooked him and he planted his 2 front paws on the dinner table and stuck his nose in her father’s plate. Argh! I was so embarrassed.

Being a herding breed, we’re also continually working on nipping. He doesn’t really bite, mainly just puts his mouth on you, but still it’s something I really don’t want him doing. He put his mouth around my nose not too long ago, so I’ve been working with him, that touching noses is acceptable, mouthing is absolutely not.

Next big issue is jumping up. He’s getting really bad at this. The other night I had picked up Maddie to bring her inside and he just launched himself at us. I managed not to get pushed over, but he hit us so hard, he ended up limping for about minute. Then last night I was taking him outside to work on heel. I had the leash and cheese in one hand and was locking the front door with the other. I wasn’t watching him while doing this and he jumped up and took the cheese right out of my hand. He got rewarded for jumping up, so we just took 5 giant steps backwards on that issue.

And last, barking at anybody or anything on the other side of the fence. Being use to 2 fairly quiet Cairn terriers, this probably isn't as big an issue as I think, but I really don’t want him barking. I haven’t yet figured out how to get across “no barking”, because as soon as I open the back door, he stops whatever he’s doing and comes running to me. So I haven’t been able to catch him in the act. I think I’m going to try going out the front door to the fence and see if I can toss a lil’ water over the fence at him, as he’s barking.

Anywho, just wanted to let you know I think most of us who have puppies are dealing with issues whether we talk about them or not.

Par…