Larry's Christmas Trip to Pittsburgh

Larry did awesome on his first long car ride. Got right into the crate, settled down with a rawhide and only complained when I got out of the car to pump gas and pick up some pop.

Heather and I left him in my mom's kitchen before I headed out to my Aunt's house for Christmas dinner. I did my best to Larry-proof the kitchen, but I assumed there would be some collateral damage. Left him his blankets and a good selection of toys. When we returned late that evening, he had done nearly perfectly. He had somehow found a Walmart bag that had powdered sugar in it, but he never broke into it. Chewed up the plastic bag really good, but other than that no problems. No housebreaking messes.

At this point, he got to meet my mom's little 1 year old Yorkie, Penny. Penny was able to sneak between the doorframe and the bar of the gate, so she could come and go as she pleased. Larry loved her but she was a bit taken aback by his size and speed. She weighs about half as much as he does, but is only a third of the size. She played very submissive, which surprised me because she usually shows alpha traits. She ended up getting pretty annoyed and growled and whimpered and made all sorts of nasty noises at him. However, she kept coming back. I kept him on a very short leash in the kitchen the whole time, so nothing very bad could happen.

Next, he was introduced to my uncle's 11 year old teacup poodle, Princess. Princess immediately laid down the law with a special kind of growl that told Larry, I'm old and don't mess with me or I'll rip your nose off. He was a perfect gentleman with her the entire rest of the time. They didn't fraternize much, but they seemed to have reached an understanding.

Larry also did great with meeting a bunch of new people, especially my one aunt who isn't real fond of dogs. She really appreciated that he wasn't barky or whiny. I kept him on his leash the whole time we were in my mom's house because if anything happened, I wanted to be able to grab him quickly. Not much happened, but it was good for when things got a little exciting. Nothing to report exciting, but sometimes he gets a little too hyped up (which is normal for a dog his age). When we visited my dad, I left him off leash in the house.

Well, in the middle of the night, we found out that Larry and Penny are actually in love. They're both fixed, so we know it's not lust, but really love. Around 2:30 in the morning, Penny somehow escaped my mom's room and kept scratching at our door until she got to see Larry. Then when we got up in the morning, it turned out that my mom had to barricade the steps so that Penny wouldn't come up and wake us up. She and Larry still played a little rough and she made nasty noises at him, but she really refused to stop playing with him. It got to the point that when it was time to feed him, she had to have some of his food (and she NEVER eats dry dog food). She just had to be doing what he was doing. It was really funny as they did a carousel routine. He'd get a mouthful, eat it, and turn away. Then she'd come in and eat one piece, and then step away. They repeated the process until the food was nearly gone from the bowl. It was really quite hilarious.

He had two accidents in the house. One was a rather predictable urination. I was about 20 minutes late to take him out and he let loose. Not a bad clean up though. The other was a little weird. I was in the shower, and he apparently just walked into the living room and took a dump. It was particularly weird because mid-afternoon is never a #2 time for him. Plus, he had just been out an hour earlier. I'm just chalking it up to an abberation.

But we left on the 27th to get back to Erie, just so I could have a chance to relax without having to worry about him behaving for everyone and possibly getting too rough with Penny. He did awesome on the trip home too, though there was a slight bit of whining.

In all, he did absolutely great. He totally surpassed my goals and expectations for him. Everyone loved him and couldn't believe how well he was doing only being a week removed from the pound. I like to think that both he and I got lucky.