I have well behaved creatures. Everyone has his or her basic obedience (but Libby, but that's another story). They are house broken, polite to strangers, behaved in the car and in public. Little children can run through the isles of PetsMart unaccompanied by their parents and ram my dogs without me worrying about a lawsuit.

I accomplished this through time. The first rule for each dog is that I do not trust them. I do not trust them until they have proven to me that they not only understand the rules, but also have decided to abide by them in a consistent manner. This is normally around two years of age.

Don't sit and squirm, and please don't say that the dog is fourteen! Dogs mature at different rates dependent on breed. Smaller dogs tend to mature faster then older ones. For all the lab owners of the world, your dogs won't think about settling down till they are four years old. Adult dogs have the comprehension of a three to five year old, dependent on the dog and the amount of training.

I firmly believe that the more you talk to your dog, interact with your dog, and introduce new environments, the smarter you make your dogs. Animals in general learn by experience. If your dog's life experience is the inside of your house, and the block around it, there is not enough potential for neural pathways to grow. Humans take their babies everywhere, and this constant interaction with new, and strange things, and thus the need to think and comprehend them, gives us a lot of basic intelligence. This is what your pet needs as well.

Here are some basic things we all want from our dogs, and that our dogs need from us, and my take on it.