Dogs know what they're doing!

When two adults decide to own a dog it is necessary that both people agree on how to train the dog!
Most of the dog shows I've watched the main issue is always between the owners not having their act together.
When we first got Hope as an eight week old pup, I wanted her to be well trained so I borrowed every book I could get from the library, researched her breed characteristics online, started watching The Dog Whisperer...   anything I could get my hands on. I wanted to 'raise' this dog to be a contributing K-9 to society. I wanted to teach her "rules, boundaries and limitations" just as Cesar Milan says you should. http://www.cesarsway.com/tips/basics/rules-boundaries-and-limitations
So I began... but every step of the way Brian (my husband of 25 years!) - who was formerly of the mindset that a dog belongs outside - fell in love with Hope and was going to spoil her. "Look, she's just like a person that can't talk.", he'd say. She became his or should I say... "He became hers".  He spoiled her rotten. We had her spayed in June of last year and by August, when I brought her to the vet for her vaccines, she had gained 22 pounds from being fed treats and table scraps! *~* She was being spoiled into obesity.

Here's a great story of personal experience! (I can tell it because I was in the right!) :-)

To help housebreak Hope we would keep her in her kennel overnight so that she learned to hold her bladder. She was a quick learner and after the first few weeks could sleep through the night and not have to go outside to pee. As she got older we started trying her out of the kennel at night to see if she had 'got' the idea of waiting until morning. All went well... no accidents, she was successfully housebroken. Months later, she came late one night to Brian's side of the bed and jumped up to paw him awake. He figured she had to go outside so he got up and let her out. When she came in I heard the kitchen cupboard open and the pull-out drawer being slid out. I knew by the sound it was the cupboard where we keep the dog treats. Now, in the beginning I knew Brian always 'treated' the dog when housebreaking her and he would give her a treat if she had successfully gone to the bathroom outside. I didn't agree with the idea but decided to leave it. But this??? When Brian came back to bed I said, "You know, you're starting a bad habit. She's going to start waking you up at all hours of the night especially if you 'treat' her for doing it." Nope, he felt she was being a good dog for telling him she had to go out and for not messing inside and she deserved a treat............*~*
Months went by....... Hope came in at 2 a.m. or 3:27 or 5:42 or whenever she felt like it and pawed Brian awake to get let outside and then get a treat. He was being used by his dog and couldn't see it! And they say animals are dumb!

Brian's idea - don't look at me

Brian was going away for a week in November and I had forewarned him that there was noooo way! I was getting up in the night to let the dog out. If she tried it with me she would be spending the night back in her kennel. The first night Brian was gone I went to bed anticipating a midnight rendezvous with Hope. I fell asleep, awoke to my alarm in the morning and Hope sleepily greeted me in the hallway. We went downstairs... there were no messes. The rest of the week went the same. Not once did she come to wake me. I am a light sleeper, especially when I am the only adult home with the kids, and I know Hope didn't even enter the room. Now I wanted to see what happened when Brian came home - how premeditated was her middle-of- the-night wake up calls? The first night Brian was sleeping in his bed, after a week's absence, in walked Hope at 5:30 a.m. I heard her come; she walked around the bed - dog tag gently jingling as she approached, and jumped up on Brian's side of the bed. I sat bolt upright and bellowed at her, "GET OUT! OUT!!! GO LAY DOWN. OUT!" She attempted one more time to get Brian to move, who, I'm sure, was shocked awake by now. As he didn't move, (smart man), Hope slowly left the room head hanging down. She gave me one last pathetic dog look at the door and when I yelled, "OUT!" she left to go lay down on our son's bed. The next day she made the attempt again but I was able to stop her in her tracks just as she entered the doorway with a sharp, "OUT!" and to this day she has not troubled us to be let out ahead of our alarm even on days when we sleep in. Don't kid yourself dogs are brilliant! To those who say animals can not reason or problem solve I say, "Think again!"

Hope is very well behaved by all standards - not perfect, but pretty close :-)
It's her owners that need help!