Anticipation

As I sit here on the eve of the adoption of our puppy I am feeling anxious. I have been wanting a dog of my own for years. I wonder what she will be like? I wonder how long it will take her to feel at home? I wonder how long it will take to house train her? Will she be smart and easy to train?

I have this vision of having a very nice, well behaved dog. I think everyone does when they start out. I think we have the advantage of starting out as adults who know that dog training is a lot of work. I think when it came to the dog I grew up with, we sort of lucked out (must have been why we called her Luckie). We did not spend an awful lot of time working on training, but she was a good dog. Sure, she had some annoying habits (that whole submissive urination thing was frustrating...), but we were pretty lucky. I would like to train this dog to be a good helper dog. Maybe train her to pick stuff up for Jay if he drops things out of his reach. I want her to be very okay with being handled, and hopefully someday I can even groom her myself. I have joked with Jay that we could get her a little vest and he could take her to the mall and she could be his 'helper dog' ;)

Adopting a puppy is a big commitment. We could potentially have her for up to fifteen years. Jay was pointing out that in fifteen years, we will be forty-two years old!