Some neighbors of ours had to go out of town over the weekend and their two little chihuahuas needed a place to stay and since they had always been friends of Olive's I didn't hesitate to offer to care for them. We see these two dogs outside almost every day and they wrestle and play and are just as friendly as can be. Their owners dropped them off at our place and went on their way and a few hours later I texted to ask how often they like to go out. Their response was the worst thing I could have anticipated - they aren't really potty trained because they don't like to go in a crate so they just go everywhere inside. I don't even want to go into the ethics of dropping off a dog without disclosing this to the sitter or the fact that these dogs were beyond old enough to be potty trained.
So I set up some baby gates at the kitchen door and hoped that Duncan would be ok alone for the weekend as I loaded up Olive and took her with me to teach at a music camp in PA.
Olive drove me nuts the whole trip - of course she was so popular with the kids and she loved playing outside with everyone, but she KNOWS she is hilarious and she uses this to get away with misbehaving. All weekend she was pulling on her leash, digging in the mud and then running around like a lunatic when I told her to stop, trying to eat the cat toys, and begging for food. Just terrible behavior all around for Olive. She is generally such an angel, but at this new house with kids everywhere she was just a nutter, totally misbehaving with a giant smile across her face the whole time. When I went to teach a class and put her in her crate she whined for a few minutes - this is so unlike Olive. I just felt at my wit's end, unable to keep her under control without giving her a cookie for every good deed done.
But then I returned home to Duncan and the chihuahuas and BOY did I learn how good I had had it. Sure, Olive was pulling on the leash more and it made it awful hard to walk her over to a cafe to eat outside - but these chihuahuas weren't leash trained at all and were apparently falling all over each other and tangling each other up constantly and then crying about it. Olive had an accident over the weekend because she panicked when we all left the house all at once (she's a shepherd - her herd MUST stay together with her guidance!) but these chihuahuas were being taken out every hour and still soiling themselves constantly. Olive didn't prefer staying close to us and I would have to constantly remind her to come back and sit with us on the porch, but the chihuahuas were jumping over TWO baby gates stacked on top of each other to escape the kitchen and soil the carpet.
Every once in a while I think I need to take a step back and realize that Olive is a very good dog - she's just still a puppy herself.
At the camp Olive was so great with the kids. This is her at an outdoor cafe where we all had dinner together. One of the kids thought Olive needed a bonnet and she sat so well for the whole thing.
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