Your dog IS really really happy you're home and you WANT to believe him/her. You really do.

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exactly bright, shining beacons. But on the rare occasion they shit in the house, the expression on their faces when I find it makes me want to kick them. "Why, what is this? Who shit here? I can't believe anyone would shit here, can you?" "No, not at all! An outrage!" "Disgusting! If I had seen them do this, I totally would have barked and said something!"

GAH.

BIG CLUE!

they slink to their crates before I start muttering and cleaning it up. The muttering seems to break their little doggie hearts even more than yelling.

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She was not allowed to go into the living room or dining room -- the rest of the
house was hers to enjoy and she was REALLY good about following that rule,
except when she was really REALLY excited... she would tear through the house
at warp speed and, without thinking, through those roomsand she would stop
in the kitchen when it dawned on her what she had just done. Her ears would
drop, anticipating a mild scolding. She never got one -- we just ignored it (and
I BET she always thought that she had slipped one past us AGAIN!!!!)
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In all the years we had her, she never shit in the house unless everyone was gone
and she got the runs. Each and every time, she would go to the same 2-square-foot
area of the living room carpet to go.
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And we always knew from her guilty expression and EXAGERRATED tail-wagging that
she was sick and had been unable to wait.
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She was never scolded for that either.
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