I hear this all the time. “ My last dog was amazing! “ or “She was practically already trained, I never had a problem with her”. “Why does this dog so bad?” Or even the dreaded,”If this puppy doesn’t change I might need to find a new home for him”. So many times , when I come to someone’s home to help them train and understand the canine communication techniques, many times they are frustrated with their new puppy beyond belief. They will go into detail about their last dog, who most likely died recently. Grieving, they start looking for a puppy that reminds them of their last dog. The perfect one. The one who was born potty trained, crate trained, leash trained, who came when called, who knew not the chew things up, who knew when to quiet down with out being told to do so. The one that would run around the front yard without ever leaving the property, who never jumped up on people or barked all the time. Who was faithful to the end and would greet the owners calmly and happily when they came home from work. What’s not remembered is the first 4 to 5 years. The chewing or the head strong dog, the crazy puppy with”The Zoomies” at 5 or 6 o’clock. The leash pulling like crazy until he was about 7. We tend to remember what we want to about our beloved dogs, because we are human. We are the ones that change. For instance, we might watch a movie when we are 15 years old. We laughed or cried or remember certain lines and characters in the movie a certain way fondly. Fast forward 10 years and we see the same movie agin. Only this time it seems different. It’s not as funny or we understand and see things a different way this time. Fast forward agin 10 years, same movie and we see scenes we’ve never seen before, or so we think. We connect with a different character in the movie much more than we ever did. The thing is... the movie hasn’t changed at all. It’s exactly as it was, but YOU changed. You grew, you see things differently than 20 years or 10 years ago. Hoping your new puppy can fill the “ Big Shoes” your last dog did is not only unfair for the puppy or new dog, it also try’s to stop your new dogs personality to shine through. Let your new dog give you a new adventure and show you her “Big Shoes”. Try not to deny your new dogs personality, because some day, he will be the one who was the perfect dog that you had many adventures with and remember fondly.