When Sam was a puppy (3-9 months) and destroying everything, all of the "experts" would say, "Oh, when she turns one, she will be a good dog! She will stop chewing and listen much better." When December 10, 2008 came and went and the only thing that changed was her age and weight, I was a little suspicious that we were doing something wrong. When we would explain our situations to the "experts" we encountered during this period of time, they would conveniently explain that dog's don't fully mature until two years of age. We often heard the promise, "When she turns two, you'll notice a huge difference!"
A year later, December 10, 2009 came and went. We had a two-year-old that chewed like she was teething, listened like she was deaf, and liked so few people, strangers must have wondered if we abused her. Neither one of us had a pair of socks without holes. We'd spent hundreds of dollars replacing dog beds. Our friends preferred to avoid our house if possible. But somehow, we found ourselves adoring this black beast as if she were Lassie. We stopped asking for advice. Occasionally I would find myself explaining away why my dog was being so bad. You know what the response was? You guessed it... "When she turns three, she will really mature!" We humored these confident statements and are still hoping those people are right! What else could we do with 100 lb monster that never seemed to sit down (my mother compares her to a toddler with ADHD). I started doing my own research. I was dying to know if there really was any reason to hope or if we'd just ended up with a very... bad dog.
Believe it or not, giant breed dogs are not supposed to reach psychological maturity at 3! There is hope for us after all! Tomorrow Sam will be three! We have made it through the terrible twos.... with only a couple disasters.... now it will be all downhill. At this very moment she is chewing a hole in her bed. Could this be the last hole she ever chews? One can hope.
Oh, and Sam just recently found her voice. I thought it would be fun to teach her to "talk." That backfired. Ask Kory. She won't do it on command, but when she wants something, she'll certainly tell you all about it!
Happy Birthday Samantha! You've added more craziness and joy to our lives than we could have ever dreamt possible!
Baby Sam
0 comments:
Leave a Comment