What a Glance Can Do

Since getting our new puppy Willow (aka will-bomb, willster, willhimena, willie, and any variation hence forth...) life has been a little bit different...who am I kidding, it has been A LOT different.

She is a puppy, so there is quite a bit that she still needs to learn about being a good house dog. (read: not pooping on the floor, chewing on my scarves, biting my toes, chewing/playing tug-of-war with my pant legs, or trying to jump up on me while I am going to the bathroom). We are training her with this method called "clicker training." The clicker is a unique sound which helps her to realize what she is doing right faster than just saying "good dog." This is Pavlov at his best. You reward the dog for good behaviors by clicking a metal tounge thingy and then give her a treat right afterward. To sum it up, you click and treat the dog for the good behaviors and ignore the bad behaviors.

Willbomb is really smart and picked up "sit" and "down" fairly quickly. She is also, for the most part, potty trained. We still have to keep a pretty close eye on her, but she can go for several hours with out having and accident and she notifys us that she needs to go by sitting by the back door. The next big thing to tackel is "stay." I have been trying to teach her this command and she just follows me to where ever I go (even if it is just one step) and sits between my feet. It's pretty cute, but I am at a loss at what to do.

It's so funny to me that this little pup, who has only been with us for 2.5 weeks can be so loyal and attached to me and Josh already. We get one step away from her and she has to come and sit between our feet and stare at us. Even though she is not understanding what I am trying to teach her, and is "misbehaving" in a way, my heart melts when her little furry paw reaches out and sets on my foot. Kind of an obvious spiritual lesson to take away there.

If my heart melts at a puppy, putting her paw on my foot because she wants to be close to me, how much more does God's heart melt when we come and want to spend time with and be close to Him even if it is just for a few minutes a day? He loves when we look at Him even if we did just mess up and are coming to him dirty, broken, and sinful! The more we look at Him the more we realize how much we love Him back and the more we become like Him.

This is a reminder to myself that even though I have a little pupster now, and life is busier and more hecktic with her I still need to make time to spend with God, no interruptions, no distractions. Who knows, maybe in that time God will click and treat.