<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div>In my experience, when a dog first comes into my home, it is perfectly well behaved. I'm inclined to believe I've gotten the perfect basset--one who would never counter cruise, eat something awful, or disobey my slightest command.</div><div> </div><div>I've learned, though, that it's only a matter of time before said basset settles in and feels comfortable. I know when that's happened because the dog starts doing things it never would have thought of before.</div><div> </div><div>Holly has been here since the summer. She came to us at age eleven, a sedate and well-behaved hound. But I was inclined to think her people had been rather overbearing, requiring perfect obedience and enforcing it by punishment, because she's a bit hand shy. I started to encourage her to be herself. What was I thinking? She took that to
mean that it's fine to eat poop. She also sometimes eats tissues. She's always been rather bossy with the other dogs--I wonder if she bossed the dachshunds she originally lived with. But I know she's beginning to feel at home here because she doesn't feel she needs to be perfect.</div><div> </div><div>Younger Dexter has yet to be really bad. But he's only been here since the end of the summer. Who knows what he'll get up to a in month or two? Thankfully, he's too short to counter cruise.</div><div> </div><div>I think it's a good sign when bad behavior starts. It shows that Tony is really yours, because he feels secure.</div><div>Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets</div></div></body></html>