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Pritch picked up a bad habit this weekend. She decided that while on the porch the best place to sleep is on top of the picnic table. Yes, that’s her in the below photo, snoozing like a champ where earlier Jenny and I had just eaten dinner. Rest assured, after the photo was taken she was jostled from her slumber and taught a bit of a lesson–dogs don’t sleep on tables. But the incident got me thinking about Pritch’s worst habits.

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When it comes to the field, topping the charts is most likely her vocal gymnastics in the duck blind. She’s steady and quiet on a dove field, but last year when we set up in a true blind with other hunters calling and loads of decoys in the water Pritch went bonkers. She whined and whimpered with excitement, sometimes building to a muffled bark. She was also about as still as a sapling in a windstorm. We’re working on that. We’ve made great strides with being steady, but the excited whimpering is a habit that’s dying slowly.

Off the field and in the neighborhood, Pritch is a dream pup. But she does love to sniff out some fresh cat poop and eat it. A true cat-poop pointer. And about the only time she truly barks is when she’s playing chase with another dog. And then it’s incessant. That can get a bit annoying, too, so there may be a bark collar in her future.

But besides the cat poop predilection, my training talents (or lack of) are probably at the root of her bad habits. Either way, she’s one heck of a dog. I know you feel the same way about your pups. But feel free to share their bad habits with the gang. Misery loves company, you know.