No No Bad Dog?

I used to get so upset at the thought that any dog was yelled at enough that they thought their name was No, No, Bad Dog. What kind of life is that? Dog should be nurtured and loved. If they are doing something that wrong, the human has an issue, not the dog! Why are humans so awful to other creatures? This really bothered me.

Then I brought home Sunshine. This dog lives to get into trouble. She will tip toe up to you steal a flip flop out from under your nose, and tip toe away without you even noticing. She's like a little 4 legged ninja! You can holler at her and all she does is blink at you. She is not put on this earth to be a good perfect dog.

It took me a long time to finally realize why she was brought into my life. Sunshine was brought into my life to teach me all about a shy dog. To totally debunk the whole dominance theory that was still rattling in the back of my head. To make me a better advocate at the Vet's office. She made sure that I didn't sweat the small stuff. Learned to laugh at the disasters that don't really matter in the long run.  Houses were meant to be redecorated with stuffy fluff. Flip flops, hats, and used wash clothes taste really yummy and help with itchy teeth. A few holes eaten in the wall can just be spackled and sanded. I learned how to clean up corn oil off the kitchen floor along with the rest of the trash can contents. Did you know that fish food is irresistible?

One of my favorite memories is when BF caught her eating his slippers. He yelled at her, took them away from her, and banished Sunshine to the bedroom. I was reading in the bedroom. I watched while she walked in with him following her to make sure she got to the bedroom. Then he turned to stalk back out in a huff. Sunshine proceeded to tip toe follow him. I have never seen a dog tip toe before and I may have peed a little trying to only silently laugh... BF turned around to make sure she was staying in the room and Sunshine instantly froze with a paw midair. He corrected her again and sent her to her bed on the other side of the room. Turned to walk out and the exact same thing happened. By this time I was howling with laughter and he couldn't keep a straight face anymore.

Then there was the first time I left Sunshine at a close friend's house for the weekend. She's a shy nervous dog so we weren't really sure how it was going to go. It was a house where she had visited often and she was comfy with the people there. We expected her to be a little stressed. Well no one yelled at her the entire weekend, they just laughed at her and that egged her on. I gather that it all started when she cried a little in her crate at night. She was immediately let out of the crate and it all was party time from there! She started out by stealing tissue boxes and escalated, to jumping up and knocking the breath out of people, to stealing toilet paper, and jumping on top of dressers! She didn't stop running around the entire weekend. Oh the naughtiness!

It's amazing how time and experience changes your thoughts and opinions. Sunshine embraces the No, No, Bad Dog title. She's quite proud of it. I now have this proudly displayed on my minivan