They are NOT All the Same

Many times we hear "all dogs are the same" and "all dogs behave the exact same way" - these comments usually come from people who are not familiar with dogs (take it from personal experience). Since we've had Cali, I can say first hand that there's nothing further from the truth than these sort of phrases.

We have a nice porch that wraps around our house. Every year (for the past 4) we've planted flowers on all size pots and placed them throughout the porch. When Pellet was a baby he found the flowers fascinating and of course, pulled them out. We reprimanded him and he learned - after a couple of impulsive flower pulling behavior and reprimanding he figured it out.

And then came Cali... last fall we planted flowers and she pulled them. We reprimanded and she continued to pull them. We didn't think much about it because "she was still a baby". So now it's springtime and we planted flowers. I have lost count on the number of times the flowers have been pulled. Just when we think that she's figured it out... SURPRISE!! We planted citronella plants (they are very pretty, by the way), she pulled one of them [two more to go, I guess]. Dogs are supposed to not like citronella scent!!!

So, moral of the story - dogs are not the same. I thought I'd never find myself saying this, but dogs do have different personalities, dogs do have different temperaments and there are such things as "stubborn dog", "intelligent dog", "mischievous dog" and these are the sort of things that make life with these pets so wonderful.

Grant it, I would love to have some pretty flowers on my porch, but definitely wouldn't trade Cali's craziness for the world.