The alternate:

As you may or may not know, I have a puppy. Her name is Patsy. She's cute and cuddly, and unfortunately moody. She'll perform the tricks at home with relative ease, but when we go to the Obedience Contests, she'll completely ignore the request from her loving trainer (me) or do a totally different trick.

So recently, I afforded myself another puppy — his name is Toby. He's a sparky Sheltie with loads of energy and love. He has actually gotten to the Expert class of the Obedience contest with ease — after only spending a few moments teaching him the tricks. In fact, he got top scores on his second try.

Where did I go wrong with Patsy?! Is she just really temperamental? I spend most of the time grooming and caring for her and she treats me like a stranger during the contests. Anyway, even if Patsy's my original pup, I'm somewhat more attached to the obedient and active Toby. I still love Patsy, though.

If you haven't met her, I've posted some photos here. I'll try to post photos of Toby later.