Adventurous Arlo

Arlo has been getting into trouble lately – counter surfing, thieving and recreational chewing. Each day Brent and I arrive home after work, enter the back door of the house and warily peek around the corner into the living room, since that’s where the bulk of his stolen items land. Lately, since the cold gray weather has replaced the warm summer nap-in-the-grass days, Arlo is inside more and frankly, he’s bored!

What we’re seeing now are the same puppy behaviors he exhibited when he first came to live at our house. Typical of a newbie, he didn’t understand where his feet or his teeth belonged, but he was charming and we were very patient. After a couple of peeing incidents – typical male showing off for the girls - when I made it perfectly clear to him that was unacceptable in the house, I was still feeling pretty patient.

Then one evening I was preparing the dogs’ dinners. Bowls were on the counter being filled, doggy anticipation was high and I was being very closely watched by three pairs of greyhound eyes. Suddenly that black beast lifted his leg and peed on Tory’s raised feeder! Caught in the act! I dropped the spoon, grabbed his collar, opened the back door and said sweetly (well, maybe not sweetly), “OUT”. Patience? Alright, it was getting pretty thin.

Arlo was initially crated at night to help him learn the routine. The first night was sleepless. Lordy, that dog can howl! By the second night I’d borrowed Joni’s barker breaker, although it’s high pitched squeal bothered us a lot more than it bothered Arlo. On the afternoon of day 3, I was sleep deprived but cautiously optimistic. When I decided to quickly run in and take a shower, Arlo gave me his angelic please-don’t-crate-me look and I decided to trust him out of my sight. He was free to roam the house while I got in the shower. When I came out there was a lake-sized puddle spreading across the dining room floor from the wall he’d peed on. Patience my butt! While I mopped and swore, he peeked out from behind the couch. When I finished mopping, I crated him and went to get dressed so I could take him back to Joni’s. I’d had it!

But once I was dressed, I knew I had to take time to calm down and think about it before I made this move. My frustration level was high enough to actually go through with the return, but tears were streaming down my face and I felt the old familiar heartache of anticipated separation from a dog I love. I went to the bookshelf, took down my copy of Brian Kilcommon and Sarah Wilson’s, Good Owners, Great Dogs. It’s a book Joni had highly recommended so it was on the shelf but hadn’t had time to read it yet. I plopped down in the living room chair, all the while being watched closely by Arlo from inside his crate. I opened the book to a random page:

“Don’t set your dog up for failure”, it said. The sentenced landed right on my heart and through more tears I reread it several times, along with the accompanying section. I’d done that – I’d set him up for failure. I’d been too quick to trust him with freedoms he didn’t yet know how to manage.

I opened the crate door, got down on my knees and apologized to Arlo. I promised him I’d remember this lesson and he, with those huge dark brown eyes, promised to try harder. We’ve both kept our promises.

That’s not to say this is always smooth. There was the day he ate the blueprints Brent had just received for a new electrical job he was bidding. Surely Arlo was a hamster in his last life. You just wouldn’t believe the nest - thousands of dime-sized pieces of paper. He does the same with magazines or books left within his reach.

Last week he chewed a lovely candle to bits, and the instruction booklet for our new gas barbecue. Then there were two baseball caps and a few floppy discs. Yesterday he pulled the new ream of paper out from under my desk and opened it for me. Thoughtful boy. And there’s just nothing that delights him more than discovering my sewing room door has been left open for the day. He’s unearthed many an unfinished project that I’d forgotten were in the back of my project closet. Yarn is his favorite. And one day he got the pincushion off my sewing desk and pulled every single pin out of it! I came home to find the pin-free cushion sitting in the floor surrounded by a sea of glass topped straight pins. I was horrified at the thought of what could have happened – but the scene was eerily tidy and how I wish I had a video of his meticulous work.

These days I hide his toys around the house each morning before we go to work and there’s no doubt he “gets” the game but he’s an adventurer at heart and is always on the lookout for new entertainment. But a promise is a promise and, truth be told, there are few dull moments around here. Together, we’re a work in progress. May we be blessed with Arlo’s adventures for many years to come.