Good Dog! I mean, Bad Dog!

My new dog misbehaving.

That may seem weird.  Let me 'splain.

Since I got her she's been coming down off drugs, scared out of her gourd, and on top of that going through moving to a new place.  She's been cringing at everything instead of the playful, boisterous boxer you'd expect.

Today, she tested a command for the very first time. It wasn't a big deal. She just decided that she didn't want to go on her noon walk so she laid down so I couldn't put her harness on, looked away and wouldn't deign to respond.

It was a total power play. Each dog does it a little different, but she'd played this game with my friend's dogs and down at the dog park, so I knew what I was looking at. We weren't going to do things until she decided we'd do them.

I've been waiting for it, so I was prepared. I hung her tack back up and just started the dishwasher and ignored her right back until she came to me.  She carried it on for a minute, then she gave me the serious evil eye, then she sulked for a minute, and when that didn't work, she crawled over for my attention and did the whole walk picture-perfect but for one squirrel incident that damned near dislocated my right shoulder. Right now she's snuggled up to my foot and occasionally licking my ankle.

I will admit it was hard to contain my pride and be properly stern. It's an awesome step forward.