Hostess With an Idea

Since I'm guest posting on K's wonderful blog, which is quite an honor, I felt it honorable to start by introducing myself. What it lacks in humor will make up in interesting [filler] explanation.

My name is Colleen [gasp! And a hush falls over the crowd.] Yes, my real name. I go by 'CDB' in bloggyland but what I'm realizing, now that I'm in the thick of it, is that it's not so scary. I haven't picked up any stalkers. Dang it! I'm way more important in my own mind, it would seem.

The blog that I [beg you all to go visit because I'm still new and nobody reads it] write daily is "Fingers and Paws," a blog devoted to the idea that we love all of our children, furry and otherwise. Is this true? Let me know what you find out. Oh, is it true for me? Let me point out a frustration.

When we adopted our dogs, who were left in a cardboard box in an apartment, we were obviously concerned about doggy social skills. We went to dog parks, had mixed results, and enrolled them (separately, so they didn't have twin separation anxiety) in dog obedience class. It sounds more harsh than it was. We used actual cut-up hot dogs as temptation to do "good dog" stuff.

The long and the short of it is, they sat when we told them. They stayed where we told them. They laid down. They would "LEAVE IT!" even when the [it] was a dead bunny picked up on the side of the trail. Very obedient dogs.

Now, I find myself telling my toddler to "sit there" and "stay" and "leave it" all the time. "No" to drawing on the flat-panel TV with crayon. "No" to lurching from my hand down the sidewalk into the street. "No," don't climb into the dishwasher!

For some inexplicable reason, it doesn't seem to be working.

If I had the time, I would write a book on training toddlers to sit and stay as trained dogs. But honestly. What fun would that be?