My husband and I live in the county and one of the unpleasantries of this is wild animals have free rein to use our yard as their toilet. We also have the pleasure of owning a five-year-old maltipoo named Jake. Now Jake is one of the smartest dogs you might meet, except when it comes to finding excrement of other animals. It is at this point that Jake becomes an idiot in my opinion. Why do I say this? Well, he likes to roll in things that are stinky, ahhh, you see where I am going with this now, don’t you?

Yesterday, my husband and I were working on some things in the driveway and Jake was with us. Jake is a very pampered dog and likes to rest on his throne on the couch most days eating bon bons being fanned or massaged. He pouts or throws tantrums when things are not going his way in fact. But early on the day in question, Jake rolled in either goose, or turtle poop and was suddenly covered in it. 

It was at this point, that Jake was finished being outside and wanted to go back inside to his comfy spot on the sofa where he was nice and cool. Only I was a meanie and I said “nope, not without a bath.” We were busy working on stuff, so Jake had to stay in the shop all day. We let him know that it was because of his choices that he was suffering the consequences. He looked at us with hurt eyes and barked his disapproval. 

It reminded me of the times when my children were little, and they made choices to do things I had told them not to do. It often create extra work for me later or caused them to have to wait for their own pleasures. It was a purposeful action on my part hoping they would learn a valuable lesson. It was the way my parents taught me, and I am hoping that some of the lessons I taught them carried over into their parenting skills as they now raise their own children. 

Back to Jake, as he was getting his bath, we asked him. “Jake, are you going to roll in poop anymore?” He looked at us both and tried to look penitent as he ate his dog treats in the bath. Do I believe Jake would do it again? Of course, he will. Did I fail a lot as a kid? Yes! Did my children? We all do, the beauty is in having people who love us in spite of those failures and being willing to clean us up afterwards and still give us treats. That and putting us back in the desired family spot where we are allowed to reign supreme once more.