The Dog Diaries: Really, who is the stupid one now?

Today was not a stellar dog day.  If fact, there was a fair amount of yelling and crying about the dog today.  But when I think back about the day, I wonder if the dog is really to blame.  At this point, it is really just our stupiditiy for not recognizing those things the dog is surely going to do.

Today the kids and I took the dog to the park for a walk.  I was feeling lazy and didn't put the dog kennel into the car.  I know better than that, right?  I already know that the dog eats seatbelts and  refuses to stay in one seat.  So should I really have been surprised when the dog refused to stay in one seat?  At least he didn't eat any seatbelts today. I was smart enough to not attempt to put him on a leash in the car ('cause I KNOW he would have eaten that!). 

Then I decided to let him go off-leash at the park.  Well...not exactly off-leash, since I left the leash connected to his neck.  I just dropped the leash so he could run around a little.  This was working just fine for awhile.  He was getting great exercise running back and forth.  He and Cade would run ahead on the trail and then I'd call Cade back and Chevy would follow.  Then Chevy discovered the marshlands.  He went crazy.  Super crazy.  He started jumping into the water like he was trying to catch something underneath the reeds.  Then he started running, running so fast and he crashed into Sydney.  So she shrieked and howled.  So he ran faster, back and forth, and crashed into her again.  The shrieks turned into gut-wrenching sobs.  I started to wonder what the occupants of the houses at the borders of the park must be thinking.  I recaptured his leash and walked us back to the car.  Chevy apologized to Sydney the best that he could and everyone was getting happy again...until I realized that wet, dirty Chevy had to get into the car without the benefit of a kennel, or a towel, or anything that might contain the mud.  And Chevy refuses to stay in one seat.  Now it was my turn to cry. 

We got home and I attempted to clean up my car's interior.  Later that night I picked up Subway sandwiches for the kids.  I even said to them "don't let the dog get your food", but apparently that warning went unheeded.  I was upstairs when I heard sobbing.  Cade was crying "I can't find my sandwich".  He said "I don't know if the dog ate it, but I can't find it".  That is not world class sandwich watching.  I found a pile of olives on the living room carpet, proof positive of Chevy's guilt.  See, Chevy doesn't like olives so he took the sandwich into the living room where he could remove the olives in private. 

So there you go...three seperate crying/yelling experiences and they all could have easily been predicted and prevented.  So who is "stupid" now?