Andiamo agreed to sit by the bronze dog statue. He kept a close eye on it, just to be sure it did not move. I could not get him any closer to it. It was a little weird looking, and it was bigger than Andi. The picture is a little hard to see.
Just because probably no puppy should be absolutely perfect, Andi does chew on a few things that he should not chew on. He doesn't do it in front of me (he isn't stupid). Most of the opportunities he has are in the car, when I am in a store, or when Journey and I are in agility class. He is always sorry.... just not sorry enough to quit.
At home most of his mistakes involve pencils and pens. He has emptied a few trash cans, but the kitchen garbage can is safely kept in the cupboard under the sink. That is where I put anything that I think might be dangerous. He has been known to take things that belong to me and place them somewhere outside over our two acres. It takes a while to cover that area on foot. The lawnmower covers the area much easier, however it pretty well decimates small items in it's path. Somewhere is one pair of glasses that I have never found. I have never found the hub that holds the top supports for our cabana. I finally had to buy some new ones. They came three to a package and that sounded like a good idea for us. Once he took one of my best athletic shoes - only one. It was gone for nearly a week and I looked everywhere! Then one morning I happened to look out the pool house window and there it was! He had not destroyed it either, just nibbled a little on on end of a shoe lace.
Anyway, the car has been the worst problem. I cannot crate him in the car because the crate is too big for the car. I managed to get one crate in, on it's side, but then there was no room for the other dogs in the back. The problem has escalated. He has been nibbling on the little covered box between the front seats. It looks awful, but I figured I would just wait until he stopped chewing before replacing it. In the process of skinning it, he learned how to open it. He has taken everything out of that little "glovebox" thing (don't know what they are really called). He destroyed about a hundred extra napkins from drive through restaurants. He ate all the extra little envelopes of catsup. Many of the doggy poop bags (new ones) are now aeriated, making the use of them a bit dicey. He ate my cell phone charger cable and the cigarette lighter that it replaced. It took him a while, but he discovered the garage door openers on the sun shades. He took one apart, but did not eat any of the pieces. I know because I put it back together and it still works!
Then he went to work on my seat belt. He did not manage to get completely through it, it was frayed but it would no longer adjust or slide through the buckle. I realized his habit was moving into more expensive items. I ordered a new seat belt. The next time I was out of the car he went to work on the head-liner. That subject is still too painful to discuss. I don't know what I am going to do about that yet.
Because Andiamo is a good half inch taller than my other dogs, his back turns on the ceiling light in the car. If I don't happen to notice it ... by morning my battery is dead.
Anyway, we went down town to have the seat belt installed. Luckily, it was covered by the lifetime warranty. I was only supposed to pay for the installation. I took Andi with me so we could walk around town while they worked on the car. Andi is an extremely outgoing pup. He loves people, other dogs, and just about anything else. He is not afraid of anything and he is curious about most everything.
Andi has had good training, which continues to this day. Unfortunately, other than the "leave it" command, none of it really applies to not eating the car. Andi started his schooling with Kindergarten class, taught by Kim Harney at Dog Days. He took his Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) training with Dorothy Webb, in Longview. We both have learned a lot from Dorothy in the ongoing obedience classes. He loves Dorothy and he enjoys the classes. He is doing so well I decided to let the other two dogs share a class to brush up on their manners too. As with children, training manners is an ongoing thing if you really care about making it part of your dogs life. When you have three big dogs it is a necessity.
So, back to our down town visit - Andi walks nicely on the leash and I guess that and his size contributed to people thinking he was full grown and certainly not a puppy. He does look pretty mature. I have to remind myself that he is just a baby. He is very smart. Our town is small and it is fun to walk around and visit. Even people in cars stopped to meet him in two cases. He is delighted to meet and shake hands with everyone. It felt like someone gave Andiamo the keys to the city. He even got invited into shops that had "no dog" signs posted.
We found a park bench to share with another statue. I don't think Andi had noticed the statue in the picture above.
... and then he noticed, especially the child, he really loves children.
After a thorough sniffing, he figured out that they were not going to respond to him.
I think Andi enjoyed the statues. I know he likes these better than the dog statue.
We walked from one end of town to the other - up one side of the street and back on the other side. We stopped at a pet store where I purchased something called "Bitter Yuck" made by NaturVet. (No Chew Spray). I have not put it on anything yet as we have been busy getting ready for the agility trial. The pump bottle says "use consistently until undesirable habits are curtailed". I will report on what I hope is it's success! I have high hopes for it - maybe because of the name.
Back at the car repair desk. A very nice manager asked me how zero sounded, in respect to expected installation fee of $50 for the seat belt. I said it sounded wonderful, but asked him what changed. He said he really liked Andi and he wanted to help him stay out of trouble. Love this dealership, love my Subaru and love my puppy!
We must have spent close to an hour there with people coming out of the shop and out of the inner offices to meet Andi. He loved them all - some more than others. One attractive woman, very nicely dressed, came out of the inner offices and ended up sitting on the floor with Andi getting very cuddly with her. She must have stayed and talked with him for 10 or 15 minutes. People in the waiting room wanted to know all about him and each time he heard his name he did a quick spin around to see if it was someone else he could meet and greet. Reluctantly, Andi followed me out to our car. We stopped at Dairy Queen and enjoyed a scoop of icecream. We got one to go for Pirate and Journey.
"Pirate, Journey, hurry. We brought you something! It's really good!"
