Sandy the sweetheart.

I have three dogs...Sandy, Lady, and Sophia.

Sandy is a golden retriever. She is a gorgeous dog.

We've had Sandy now for close to two years. She came from the animal shelter when she was about a year and a half old.

Her previous owner trained her well, but he must've been mean or a little too strict because her habits and attitude show this all the time. She always thinks we're trying to trick her. She used to be really skiddish. We kind of "untrained" her a little. She used to refuse to get on the bed or couch, but we broke her of that (haha). She just doesn't really know how to be a dog. She's more worried about upsetting us.

She is super well behaved (to the point of absurdity). She refuses to do anything wrong (even if she sees the other dogs doing it).

If for some reason our front door opens and the dogs are free to escape....What does Sandy do??? She sweetly sits on our front porch and watches the other dogs run away. You can tell that she desperately wants to run too, but she doesn't because she knows she's not allowed to. It's really funny.

She does however have a barking problem and sometimes she's a little scary. If she hears the tiniest sound outside, she goes nuts and barks with a ferocious sounding bark. We can't get her to hush. She growls at strangers. We can't get her to stop that either. It's really embarrassing. People approach her because she's a golden retriever and that breed is known for its gentle nature. Not our Sandy! She's a sweetheart, but she must get to know you first.

She gets sooo excited when we come home. Even if we've only been gone for 5 minutes. It's so sweet.

She's a good dog. She is the best dog we own. (If you ask David this, he will disagree at first, but then he'll agree.) When I say the best....I mean, she gives us the least trouble. She's so sweet, but like I said...she just doesn't know how to be a dog.