One reason that dogs like me end up in shelters is that we sometimes behave in ways that are unwanted by our humans. We don’t mean to do things that are destructive or undesirable, I promise – we really want to please our humans! But often our humans don’t understand us and what we need to be happy, both physically and emotionally.
For example, I sometimes get really bored when mom is away for a long time, and so I find things to do to have fun while she is away. The first week after I came home from the shelter, I learned pretty quickly that there was a different set of rules I had to learn with my new mom than I was used to. How was I supposed to know she didn’t want me getting up on the furniture? So until I learned what was expected of me in my new home, I did some things she wasn’t happy with. Like when mom came home to find that I had torn up her pillow on the bed. I had a lot of fun doing it, but mom didn’t seem too happy when she saw the feathers all over the place. Thankfully she was very forgiving because she didn’t see me do it, and realized that I needed to be taught to stay off the furniture so I don’t get into any more trouble. But I don’t mind because now I have my own cushy bed to sleep on!