I don’t know about you but, at ten weeks, this gal already had a ‘don’t tell me what to do” look on her face.

About this blog

The obligatory caveat:

  • I have no training in veterinary medicine
  • I have no training in dog nutrition
  • I have no training in dog behavior

This blog is about my lovely dog, Dixie. Telling people she is as big as a horse is a little over the top. Describing her as the size of a pony is more accurate, though a bit cliche. Still, it is true.

Dixie arrived with a sassy attitude and oozed intelligence, cleverness, and sneakiness. This blog is about how she outsmarts us at every turn and the adjustments we must make to accommodate a massive dog with a puppy attitude roaming inside the house.

About me

I like to research and share real-life experiences based on what I learned. You will find that I go off on tangents from time to time. I freely state my opinions and do not have any expectation that everyone will agree. I will admit that I am not a fan of someone going off on a tirade in the comments. A little diplomacy goes a long way.  

I like to find information and answers to obscure questions. Yet, typically the same news spreads across multiple sites. I prefer something less cookie-cutter and a lot more informative. That is another facet of this blog – summarizing the information I find. Yes. Just like a book report, only more fun.

Nothing beats first-hand experience, so I do my best to tie the information I find to Dixie’s antics and describe the steps I take to give her the best chance of being a good canine citizen. I also like to include pictures that might help contextualize information.

About Dixie

Dixie is a rescue dog we adopted when she was ten weeks old. She has grown into a massive dog with a little sassy attitude. It is not uncommon to walk a mile inside my house just chasing Dixie around to prevent her from wreaking havoc.

Dixie is thoroughly trained and still quite puppy-ish at a year old. There are days that she acts like a typical well-behaved puppy, and then there are days when she tosses all her training out the window and acts like, to use a cliché, a bull in a china closet.

I prefer positive reinforcement, but it was not working with Dixie. Dixie could genuinely hurt someone due to her size, exuberance, stubbornness, and lack of response to conventional training. We are not trying to create a robot dog, but we need some parameters. If you are opposed to looking at pictures of a dog wearing an electric collar (like I used to), you will gain more insight into how it can be used appropriately and painlessly.

Did I want a large dog? No.

How did I end up with a large dog? By accident.

Do I regret it? Hell no.

Life with Dixie is quite a ride (pardon the pun).