The one with 9 years

Well today is our 9th anniversary so it seems like a good time to babble a little.  I still can’t believe how times passes by so quickly.  9 years ago we were still in CO.  9 years ago I was still in grad school.  9 years ago we didn’t have a shared bank account.  9 years ago only 1 of our dogs had been born.  9 years ago we wondered what life was going to be like in CA.  9 years ago we had no idea what the next 9 years had in store for us.  So, as we enjoyed a nice dinner out this evening, we wondered what the next 9 years would bring.  Who knows?  Does it really matter?  Hmmm….

It’s safe to say we have no idea what I’ll be blabbing about in 9 years.  I’m excited to find out.  I plan to be talking about all the birthday parties we attended with our family and closest friends.  I miss those celebrations.  I plan to be talking about all the fulfilling experiences we had.  We’re already shifting our attention away from work and money towards fun, hobbies, experiences and genuine time together.

Our latest experience is the result of our most recent (and we’ve decided our last) dog fight.  I know I have an overly large soft spot for Ark.  He knows this too.  He also takes advantage of this situation.  Well, maybe “takes advantage” isn’t really accurate.  I don’t think dogs are conniving.  Instead, I think he just sees the situation for what it is and knows that I don’t really mean business.   Regardless, Ark thought that reprimanding Hermes would be a good idea and Hermes disagreed.  It was another small spat but scary enough that John and I lost it, made it known that this will never happen again and immediately implemented a more structured dog training regimen.

We are proud to say that within 2 weeks, literally, all 4 dogs learned to heel by our sides when we walk.  We have claimed the front door as our own which now allows free use of the front door by ourselves and visitors without the dog-mob rituals we had come to expect.  UPS and FedEx are still a bit of a challenge but I have high hopes due to the fact that both Mimi and Ark actually backed down today when I told them I could handle the lawn mowers all by myself.  Typically, Mimi would attempt to crash through every window in the house to tear them apart.  Today however, I reminded her of my abilities and she actually backed down and proceeded to watch the mowers go about their business.  I just can’t believe the changes in all of them and how quickly they have changed.  It’s my belief (and I freely admit that I’m not an expert) that our pack did not have a leader and even though none of our dogs wanted to “step up” to be “THE” leader of the pack, they didn’t want any other dog to lead either.  I guess I didn’t realize how important it is to a dog to have a clearly defined leader.  Now that I’m seeing significant changes in the behavior of all of our dogs, I now see that I should have declared my leadership position long ago.  Better late than never, I suppose.

This entry was posted on Wed, Jul 15 2009 at 23:12 and is filed under Vanessa's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.