Meet Venna Albert.
      She is just about six months old. She has been spayed, she is about 95% house-trained, she usually sits on command, and she is a whiny teenaged puppy going through her rebellious stage.
      Oh yeah. She hit imaginary puberty and she hit it hard.
      I’ll be the first to admit that we don’t spend enough time with concentrated training lately, but she does great with the basics. Sit. Down. Up. Off.
      Stay? Not a chance.
      Come? Not if there is anything else around to capture her attention.
      Hell, any of the above, if there is anything else around to capture her attention (in particular, other dogs or people).
      Also, she’s taken to sneaking in Tim & Rhesa’s dog door when she’s in the backyard (yes, we let her out in the fenced yard to play with Zoey & Emy for a couple hours during the day) and since we can’t trust her not to do that at the mo, she’s not allowed out unattended right now. Thus, she sits by the door and cries (not to be confused with her ‘I have to pee’ whimpers which usually involve circling by the door instead of sitting there) and grumps around, throwing her water dish or chew bones around…
      Throwing a tantrum just like a teenager.
      Oy vey.
      So I’ve been doing some research again. Finding ways to make sure that when we say “Venna, come!” she wants to come, because YAY! Mark and Josie want me! Yay! Trying to treat her when we say her name and she immediately turns to us. So that paying attention to us is a good thing, a great thing that means treats and toys and affection. *sigh* Its easier said than done though. And requires a lot more patience than I seem to have.
      As much as it is about teaching her right from wrong, what to do and when… its about training us.
      And we’re untrainable!
      Tee-hee.
      Anyway, wish us luck. We haven’t had a kid yet, but somehow, we’ve ended with a teenager anyway!