As I mentioned a little over a month ago we got a rescue dog named Chance as an addition to our little family. Before we got a dog many people mentioned the concept that getting a dog is like training for becoming a parent. My parents had dogs for nearly my whole life growing up in their house, so having a dog wasn’t necessarily a new thing to me. My parents always had pretty low maintenance dogs and that was something we were looking for when it came time for Corina and I to find a dog of our own. Even though we found a dog that was past the “puppy stages” in life it hasn’t meant the road wouldn’t be bumpy.

mangled blinds

In our first month there have definitely been some highs and lows with our whole relationship. I find the biggest thing I can take out of dog ownership is to begin to understand what my parents went through raising my sister and I as children. How one day a dog can bring so much joy and fun into your life, then the next decide to wantonly destroy stuff in your house. Tonight was one of those low nights. We went out for dinner and did some shopping for Father’s Day only to pull into the driveway to discover the blinds at the front door window maimed beyond recognition. Before we left it had been raining and Chance doesn’t typically like rainy walks so we skipped it tonight. Obviously he was none too pleased that we left him at home alone. When we went upstairs we discovered that he had also destroyed the blinds in my office. Colour me unimpressed.

Chance is really a great dog, but so far we’ve found he does have a bit of a defiant streak in him that we are working on training out of him. In the month we’ve had him he has definitely shown loads of behavioural improvement as he has settled into his new life, which is very encouraging. I just hope we don’t have too many repeats of the blind massacre that happened tonight, because buying new window coverings all the time isn’t cheap.