It never ceases to amaze me how little people understand dogs. Some of these people are even dog owners. I don’t claim to be a dog expert. However, one thing I know is that dogs want to be with their owners.

By saying that dogs want to be with their owners I’m not just saying that dogs want to run happily alongside their master. Sure, a dog will do that. What I mean is that a dog will be with their master in situations where a person would think the dog wouldn’t want to go; in fact, the dog will happily go into what it might perceive as an unpleasant situation just to be with its owner.

I would never have believed the extent an animal would do this until I saw our Chihuahua start to make her jump. Thank God I caught her in time! This is how it all happened:

You have to understand that my dog just can’t stand to not be with me. I’ve tried to break her of that by not giving in to her whimpering. I had to go into the hospital one time, and she didn’t eat the entire time I was there. Well, we can’t have that! She’s little enough already – if I’d stayed in the hospital much longer, there wouldn’t have been any dog left! So I decided she had to learn to be more independent.

This did not set well with the dog. Chihuahuas, by their nature, are rather clingy to their masters. I think my dog is even more clingy than usual because she was a rescue dog.

Now, I didn’t ignore the dog all the time. I couldn’t have done that – I love my dog! But I picked a few times of the day where I wouldn’t spend any time with her so that she would develop the ability to go off and entertain herself. One of the times I decided to do this would be when I was in the pool.

I had taught my dog to hate the pool by splashing her. She hates to get wet, so when she’d get close we’d grab her and bring her in the pool with us. We never dunked her – we didn’t want to totally freak her out – but we did get her scared enough of the pool to stay away from the edge. Or so we thought.

So, there I was, congratulating myself that I had broken my dog of being such a momma’s baby. My friend and I got in the pool. We were relaxing and everything was great. And then I felt something on my back. It was my dog! She had jumped from the edge of the pool onto my back! She was so determined to be with me that she was willing to brave the water of the pool, the water she feared, in order to be with me. Thank God I caught her before she slipped off my back!

My friend and I laughed about it, petted the dog, and put her back safely on the concrete. Wait a minute, the dog said to herself, you mean I did that for nothing? Persistence is my middle name!

We got out a lightweight raft. I was just about to get on it when Ker-Plunk! On it jumps my dog! I can’t believe her nails didn’t puncture the thing. This was one of those .99-cent rafts after all!

That was it. She won. We had to let her stay. So now, when we get in the pool, the dog goes too. She still hates the pool. The queen must have the raft, thank you! She isn’t about to get wet!

Dogs want to be with their masters. All the time. Whether the master wants to be with them or not. So you might as well let them do what they want because they’re going to do it anyway. Take it from me. I know!