To give some perspective, at the time he was still a young tyrant of my life, I was juggling college and two jobs, one of which happened to be at the local Humane Society (The other a waitressing job I’d had since I was 16) While at the shelter I learned a lot of things, a lot of which have shaped how I see dogs today. But the biggest thing that was really getting under my skin was what people were wanting to surrender or return dogs for.

Jumping, peeing on their carpet, separation anxiety, pulling them down the road, barking, chewing, and the list goes on and I was thinking to myself well hows the dog supposed to know any better if you never teach them. They’re just being a dog. And it clicked. Cartoon light bulb and all.  Jasper was just being a dog. He had no ill intentions. He had no secret vendetta. Jasper was just a social butterfly that didn’t know there even was a right or wrong choice because I had never been able to communicate with him what that was.

So I learned how to talk to my dog in a way he would understand. In a way that would build a relationship of trust and respect between us. And suddenly I wasn’t that girl on the end of the leash pulling her hair out at the thought of walking her dog. I was walking with no leash, with a confident happy dog, getting to enjoy the freedom of just being together.  And that was priceless.