You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

Well, Smitty isn't exactly an OLD dog--a little over a year. But since we are unsure of his whereabouts for the first year of his life, it seems he picked up some not so socially acceptable habits out there on the streets. (Hey, if you didn't have any food, you might eat poop too!)

We have had Smitty for five months now and it has been full of ups and downs. More downs than ups. There was the time I tried to find him a new home; he chewed up a rug or two; then chewed up some shoes, then chewed up a cat toy and had explosive you-know-what in his crate and I had to take him to the vet ER on a Saturday night. There was a lot of chasing after him to get things out of his mouth. And the barking. Oh, the barking.

Every day I asked myself, "WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

It's kind of like skiing. If you have never skied your entire life, then age 40 is not the time to start.

But then, a miracle. I went away to Savannah on a girls' weekend and came back to a brand new dog! Well, he looked the same. And I DO like the way he looks. But he acted like the dog I had always dreamed of!

And it is all thanks to the e-collar. Fine, it's a shock collar. But I felt the shock and it's nothing. But it was enough to completely transform our dog! At least I hope this is for keeps. It's been about three weeks so I figure I am not jinxing it by sharing it with my dozens of readers.

Anyway, life with Smitty is so much better now. He is a pleasure to take on walks. He lays around when he's in the house. He only barks when necessary. And if he does start to chew on something, we just say, "No" and he drops it. HE. DROPS. IT.

Oh, and we only had to use the e-collar for a little bit. He still wears it just in case but we rarely need it. He is totally my favorite kid.

Here are some pictures and a video of Smitty. In the video, Gus is trying to show how well trained he is. Now if we could only get him to stop eating his poop...



After playing at the dog park and after his post-dog-park bath (which I gave him all by myself!)