Uncle Ryan's Visit & Visitors

Uncle Ryan came to visit his new nephew and he kept gushing how his toy poodle doggy, Trish was cuter than Hero. As if! Every dog is cute in their own way, but I suppose it's just human nature to compare your kids, your pets, your spouse and everything else. For now Hero is still smaller than Trish and it won't be that way for too much longer.


I actually find it kind of amusing that everyone you meet will tell you something different about how you raise your pet (and your kids and everything else again too). Uncle Ryan allows Trish and their other Maltese dog, Tiger to sleep on the bed with him and his wife Donna. I told him I would absolutely not allow that not would I allow him to go on the couch (for now at least) and he told me I was mean. I also have Hero sleep in his crate while I'm away from home and in the night and when I catch him sleeping outside and I can't watch him because I have to work. Again, he said I'm mean.



Well, I do love him to pieces, but I also have clear boundaries. I make sure he is comfortable and that his needs get tended to... not to mention that I spend LOADS of time with him since I work from home, so that's probably already way better than a lot of people that work 9-5. Ryan and a lot of other people say that I'm mean... I say it's TOUGH LOVE and it doesn't make Hero love me any less... I'm just doing this so he's more well behaved. He is a dog, not a human and I didn't get him expecting him to be one.


I didn't like it too much when Ryan put Hero up on the couch because that's one of the things I don't allow. The next morning, I was sitting on the couch and Hero was on the floor below me and he actually started barking at me. Not good at all... these puppies learn fast!



I love having visitors, but sometimes after a visit, I find myself having to retrain Hero because they negate all the things that I teach him sometimes. It's pretty frustrating to be honest. What can you do though? At least at the end of the day, my little Hero knows who's boss!