It’s good to be king
After three years with Eko, I felt like I knew everything about dogs. Feeding, training, behavior, you name it, I knew it like the back of my hand. I felt quite secure in my canine knowledge.
Until this little stinker came along!
Penny, to put it mildly, turned my world upside down
When Penny first came home I treated her exactly how puppy-Eko liked to be treated. I gave her the same toys, the same accommodations and the same training methods.
I quickly realized the error of my ways. Where Eko spent most of his first day home in my lap, Penny spent most of her first day terrorizing my mom’s dog and asserting her claim as emperor of the universe.
Penny’s first lesson for me was also the most important lesson – there is no “one size fits all” method to a successful relationship with your dogs.
When presented with the same exact stimuli, two dogs may react completely differently. In my case, I have one philosopher and one bowling ball
And when you’re a bowling ball, the whole world looks like pins
Penny forced me to reconsider everything I “knew” in order to discover the best way for us to build a strong relationship
These days, I know twice as much as I did yet half as much as IÂ thought I did
When my whole world was one dog, I knew the whole world. Penny’s gift was the realization the world is much greater than any one (or two) dog(s).
With each new dog in our lives, we must keep our eyes and minds open to the new lessons each pup has for us.
My little hellhound has had plenty of lessons for me!
 Live. Learn. Grow. Repeat. Eko taught me the first three, Penny taught me the last one. Together, they form a simple but powerful map for my journey through life.
So what about you guys? What did your second pet teach you that you might have otherwise missed?
