The T-Rex has appeared
Let the patience and training begin…
Yesterday I walked in the door after work and was greeted by a very happy and energetic Arlo. I immediately hear from the next room, “I’ve been untangling this for half an hour!” At this point I have no idea what is going on. I turn the corner to the living room and there sits my oldest son with my yarn in his hand untangling a massive mess. He informs me that Arlo had gotten into my yarn and proceeded to unravel three of them. The biggest issue was that he unraveled the three of them into one pile which tangled them all together. My son had already spent half an hour untangling the colors and now beside him sits three tangled piles of yarn. I immediately sit down and start helping him. My husband arrives home. I sit down the yarn ball I am working on next to me. I start to tell my husband what happened and Arlo decides the ball of yarn I just layed beside me is his toy again. I reacted quickly enough to rescue the ball from his jaws before he got away with it. The yarn and all my other crocheting supplies are now upstairs, behind a closed door until I can figure out how to secure them away from my playful pup.
Fast forward to this morning. It started out pretty normal. I let Arlo outside to potty first thing then got ready for work. When it came time for my husband and I to leave, he took Arlo outside for another pee break (just in case). About a minute after my husband gets out there I hear, “Mom, I need you!” I race outside and find out that Arlo had figured out how to wiggle out of his collar. He is now running the backyard - naked. I give the command for him to come and he does - YES. Except as soon as I reached for him, he took off, full throttle. This happened 2 more times. I asked my husband to go get his treats. I try again, treat in hand. He starts to go for the treat and I reach for his neck with my other hand. He sees me and decides that running free is worth more than the treat to him at that moment. He was off doing laps in the backyard again. I tried again and again but no luck. He was acting like a stray dog again. Finally my husband was able to get his hand on the nap of his neck while I distracted him. Both of us now exhausted and late for work walk him back into the house. Phew. I’m exhausted again just thinking about this.
On my break at work I ordered him a rope toy. It is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I hope this mentally stimulates him enough so he won’t feel the need to run laps. I also have a ball coming that was recommended to me by another Great Dane parent but it is taking forever to arrive - I ordered it a week ago. I sure wish a local pet store had a better selection of items made for large breed dogs.
