Leaping Lizards! She's on the counter!

My husband and I have 3 dogs, and each one is completely different from the other. Each one is amazing, funny and loving. Like people, they have their strengths and weaknesses, and best of all we can always and count on them to snuggle up with us at the end of the day.

Our oldest George doesn't really play with toys that much, he loves hiking and napping. He does however have issues with small dogs, and sometimes barks non-stop for no reason. So we've learned to keep him out of dog parks, and he doesn't go places in public that could have small dogs. The barking we continue to work on and we adapt on the fly with him.

Cali is the middle doggy. She was born deaf, has allergies, her bladder is in the wrong spot so she takes incontinent medication and as a puppy she was a chewer. She's getting older now and doesn't chew as much, but she still loves walks and toys. She's taught us a new way of communication as we use doggy hand signals with her (much like sign language) and we've had to learn ways to get her attention since we can't just call out her name. When it comes to communication you can never have too many ways to get your ideas across.

Skylar is the puppy....full of energy, she likes to jump and she loves to chew. We've gone through countless toys over the past few months. She mastered climbing over baby gates at just 10 weeks old. We take lots of walks, and play many games of fetch, not to mention tug of war. She loves that game!

Over the months the long walks and high speed chasing of tennis balls through our dessert backyard has strengthened her legs.  She's also lean...and long. Unlike the other two dogs who's deep Boxer bellies keep them from jumping too much...Skylar can jump. And she's jumping higher and higher every day.

You see where this is going right? The other night I'm in the kitchen making dinner, when suddenly with a small running start Skylar jumped up onto the counter and slid across the stove, stopping right next me. "Can I have some meatloaf too?"

I called out to Jeff so he could see what she had done, and he burst out laughing. We've never had to worry about a dog being on the counter if there wasn't furniture in front of it that they could climb onto. In that one moment...the whole way we store things changed. No more just putting items we don't want the dogs to eat up high on the counter. I spent the rest of the night moving items off of the counter and finding new homes for them. We can't have Skylar eating the Kurig K-cups now can we??

This puppy is going to teach us lots of things. Starting with patience and different way of organizing. I'm guessing we are going to learn lots this year. What has your dog taught you? Has anyone else had to re-arrange their entire kitchen?

-Kat  :)