I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but Ayla actually managed to steal a steak from us again. Talk about the shame lol. Wasn’t it bad enough that she got us on two other occasions already? (read here and here)

We were grilling again on Monday night and decided to take the opportunity to train Ayla at the same time. We were watching her extremely closely, making sure she didn’t even sniff at the counters and that she was never alone with the steak. We reprimanded her when she was thinking about jumping up to inspect the counters, etc., etc. So we managed to get the steaks on the grill and we even got to eat the steaks…but hubby’s was a bit tough so he left almost half of it on his plate. I can honestly say that he really must have found it bad or had too much to eat for lunch because I’ve never seen him turn away a steak before…ever.

Ayla was being exceptionally loving that evening after dinner. She kept coming over to the couch for petting and just to check on us. We had eaten in the living room and hadn’t cleared the plates yet, again mostly because of the dog. Clearing the table meant taking care of the dishes right away or she would be trying to get them in the kitchen sink and we just weren’t up to the task yet. So hubby decided to go have a cigarette outside and he started looking for something which he was asking me to help him locate. At the same time, I was using the laptop so I was distracted from him and the dog…which was her perfect cue. Since my view of the plate was obstructed by a napkin, I didn’t even realize she had taken the steak until it was nearly gone. She’s certainly too fast and too smart for her own good.

After all this, I’m not sure that we’ll be giving The Steak Monster another steak for her birthday dinner. But if we do, we should apparently season it with plenty of herbs and spices since they don’t seem to bother her. We’re actually pretty sure that she’s taken a liking to A1 Bold & Spicy steak sauce with Tabasco in it…and the stuff isn’t so mild. She’s already shown us she loves wasabi and Louisiana Hot Sauce when we tried to use them to deter her from chewing on us. She is truly a strange dog but perhaps it’s just because she’s a Texan at heart.