Trooper the Shredder

Trooper and his latest victim.

Uh-oh, another unanticipated expense in owning a service dog.

“We’re going to have to hire the cleaning service at least once a month,” Debby said. “Maybe more.”

Usually we do the light housekeeping in our condo ourselves, but every three months or so a service does the heavy stuff and gets the place sparkling.

But now that Trooper has demonstrated his proficiency ripping apart plush chew toys, bits of stuffing and fragments of fabric are scattered all over the house. (He doesn’t eat those things, of course.)

I figure that two days, maybe three, is the maximum service life of a plush toy around him.

In other news, my fledgling hearing assistance dog absolutely rocked his three sound-work tasks Monday morning. Five out of five at the calling of my name, five out of five at the door knock, and five out of five at the phone ring. Each time we did not lay treats at the source of the sounds and rewarded Trooper only when he led me to the source right away.

He still needs a “hup!” command to jump on me when he hears a sound, but we are working on making that an automatic response.

He was perfectly behaved at Office Depot, the bank, and Curt’s Cafe.

I think that’s pretty damn good for just eight days of work with us. I’m sure he thinks so, too.

That unanticipated expense is going to be well worth it.