Mabel, the Yellow Labrador Puppy

Take your puppy to a class. It's great training for them, but even better for us owners!

P.S. These classes are not magic. It's up to you to follow through with the lessons and consistently train your dog. Non-dog-people might make fun of you for some of the training you do and who can blame them? There's something funny about a grown adult trying to wrestle a 70 pound adolescent puppy into time-out for jumping onto a kitchen chair and stealing treats off the table. But don't let the teasing distract you from your goal: To create a happy, healthy, well-balanced dog. The work is never done, but it's always worth it!

For the first Christmas in our new house, my husband and I bought one of those small potted evergreen trees that you plant somewhere in the backyard after the holidays are all said and done. We thought, 'how nice it will be to one day point the tree out to our kids and tell them that it was our first Christmas tree ever.' Once spring came around, my husband found a nice little corner in the yard for our tiny tree and planted it there with love. Then Mabel found it...and the rest is history.

I ran around the house franically searching for Mabel but she was nowhere to be found! And then I heard a funny sound from the bathroom, a slurping slobbering sound. So I went in and found her drinking water off of the floor of the bath tub. Why? Her water bowl was full. Why?