How to Snap your Dog’s Sanity

Our puppy is now almost a year old.  Having him around has certainly  has been an adventure!  We went from having an old, slow, sweet, obedient dog (Abe) to having, well, Trooper!

Trooper is a mix of Spaniel and Lab, so he definitely has chasing and retrieving tendencies.  The first time, though, I suspected that something was Not Quite Right with the dog was when we took him to visit Coal Creek Farm.  Once he caught his first whiff of CHICKEN, he was off like a shot, chasing and yipping a strange-sounding high pitched noise.  He chased chickens until he was foaming at the mouth.  And until April stopped him.

Fast forward to Christmas.  Master Munchkin got a laser pointer in his stocking, because we like to supply our young children with dangerous weapons.  Right away we noticed that Trooper was very interested in that little red dot of light.  A little too interested.  He focused his entire being into trying to catch that elusive light.  Again, there was frantic chasing and foaming of the mouth.  Hmmm…. After a few days of laughing at our crazy dog, we started to suspect that perhaps this was Not a Good Thing.  So we put away the laser and expected our lives to return to normal.

But they didn’t.

(Part 2 of How to Snap your Dog’s Sanity coming soon!)