What's Next for Otto

Leah had found a doggie daycare for Otto for when she goes to work. They even had a pick up and take home service. This might sound like a perfect answer for a needy dog but it was not what Otto wanted. He did not like being put in a crate for the drive to daycare, and he did not really like being in a room full of dogs. He had a tendency to not socialize, he would stand at the top of the small slide, overlooking the area, but not joining in. Basically after a while, Leah and Kyle got the news that every parent dreads..Otto flunked out of doggy daycare. They did not feel it was a good setting for him.

What was next for Otto. A little study abroad, well actually how about coming to live in Wisconsin with Bandit and Bogart and Scott and myself. During this time we learned first hand just how determined Otto could be.
When I came home to find he had opened the pantry and emptied three shelves of food. He ate combinations of cereal, cookies, crackers, noodles, dog food, sugar, flour, hot cocoa mix, pudding, hard candy, chewy candy, just about everything that is stored in the pantry was now on the floor, and either empty or ripped open.
Bogart joined in on the feast but Bandit, knowing this was not good, was hiding upstairs in a bedroom staying out of trouble. That is how through try and error we found a way to lock the pantry doors by tying the handles together, loose enough to slip it over, but tight enough that a nose (or head) can not open it up.
Then Otto was put in a cage when I went out. The first time he was alone for a couple hours, he decided nothing could hold him and proceded to chew on the bars and move them apart. If I had been gone a few hours longer he may have at least gotten part of his body out. The bars were then reformed, tied for strength. We did not give up on the cage..made it more appealing, cushy quilt, a few extra treats and eventually Otto got used to going in when I was going out.
Along the way, he found other ways to get into trouble.
He found interesting things on a shelf..he ate all the dry fish food out of the container.
Learned to open my purse, pull out everything until he found gum or lifesavers. Once he used a chair to get up onto the top of the cage and then onto the countertop. Looked around for something good, but I had already learned that the countertop would now always be clean without any food on it. No bread, no avocados, no pretzels, nothing.
Inbetween keeping us on our toes, Otto got along great with Bo and Bandit.




He also loves to sit on the other dogs whenever he can. He also prefers to lie against or on a person..snuggle next to them..or as I like to say the Otto flop. It might be like security to him. He still missed Leah and Kyle terribly and about 6 months after coming to Wisconsin he went back to Chicago. Leah had found a new doggy daycare, and they were buying a new condo. Everything would be great from here on...or would it. (Next Can't keep a determined dog down)