My wife and I had both always had a dog so when our Golden Retriever died we went to the animal shelter.
We found Cookie, a beautiful medium sized mutt and brought her home.
And that's when the nightmare started! Cookie seemed perfect for us but once we got home she never really settled in.
She was house trained but we would find puddles in out of the way places even though she had unlimited access to the back yard through a doggie door.
She barked incessantly and it didn't matter if there was anything to bark at or not! Her anxiety and fear was making our all of our lives miserable.
My wife and I decided that Cookie needed some intensive training.
We took a hard look at our own behavior and realized that we were inadvertently reinforcing and encouraging her bad behaviors.
We realized that we hadn't made it clear to Cookie what was acceptable and what was not - we'd just brought her home and assumed she knew how to behave.
The barking, for example, was more than just having fun.
She actually thought the birds were a threat! They were noisy and ate food that Cookie apparently thought belonged to us.
She was trying to protect us, not annoy us, and we were punishing her for trying to be a good dog.
As for the puddles, Cookie apparently was afraid to go outside sometimes because my wife was in the hot tub.
The jets in the tub were noisy and frightening for a small dog.
There were reasons for all of Cookie's "bad" behaviors but we had not been observant so we didn't understand her.
I'm glad we learned to listen to what Cookie was trying to tell us.
She doesn't speak our language but if we listen she'll tell us plenty! Now she's happy, secure and well behaved.