Archaeology of Friendship: Emily Walbert and Andromeda

In this delightful episode of "Dog Friendly," host Brandon Bennett sits down with Emily Walbert, who introduces listeners to her beloved dog, Andromeda. The name, inspired by Greek and Roman archaeology, suits this charming pup perfectly. Andromeda, affectionately known as Andy, is a unique mix of Rottweiler, Lab, Boxer, and Pitbull, showcasing an impressive blend of strength and agility. 

As they celebrate the anniversary party at Romero's K9 Club & Tap House, Andy is decked out in a fun pool party outfit, adding a lively spirit to the festivities. Emily shares heartwarming insights about Andromeda's relationship with their house cat. While they may not be best friends, the gentle understanding between the two animals highlights the harmony they’ve created in their home.

The conversation also touches on Emily and her husband's commitment to Andromeda's training. At the time of the interview, they were focused on refining her skills, and it’s clear that Andy has mastered some impressive tricks. From bowing and sitting pretty to her amazing scent-tracking abilities, Andromeda is not just a loving companion but also a highly trained pup. Emily discusses their adventures hiking at the lakes and visiting dog-friendly breweries, painting a picture of a fulfilling life enriched by the bond they share with Andy.

Overall, this episode is a heartwarming exploration of the joys of dog ownership, full of laughter and valuable insights into training and companionship. Tune in to hear Emily's joyful stories and learn more about the unique relationship between her and Andromeda, showcasing the wonderful adventures that dogs bring into our lives!

Romero's K9 Club & Tap House - Dog Friendly Tap House where you can come enjoy a dog friendly atmosphere and bring your dog to play inside or out with other furry friends. 

Trixie Pet - Strategy Game Turn Around 

Product information
2 different games that require dog to rotate and balance beakers in order to release treats

• set includes: base plate, 3 rotating beakers, 2 sets of lids
• mix-and-match 6 lids to vary levels of difficulty
• non-slip rubber feet keep the base in place
• includes booklet with training tips and tricks
• materials: plastic, rubber

Alpinehowl.com for your Handcrafted apparel for dogs and matching hats for their best friends.

Info@alpinehowl.com

IG: @alpinehowl

Check out Bixbipet.com for dog and cat food.

Dog Friendly Podcast TM

Transcript

  Good morning dog lovers. Welcome to Dog Friendly, the podcast where we celebrate the joy of dogs and the adventures we share with them. I'm your host, Brandon Bennett from Alpine Howell. Each week I take you to dog friendly locations, to chat with passionate dog owners about their furry companions and the unforgettable experiences.

They've had together.  We'll also hear from experts who share valuable insights on training health and making the most out of our time with our canine pals, all while enjoying the great outdoors. So whether you're a seasoned pup parent or just a dog lover, grab your leash. Maybe a libation. Enjoy us as we enjoy the world of dogs.

And  incredible adventures that await. Let's dive into today's episode. 

Good morning everybody, and we're back with another episode of Dog Friendly another week in March on the way it's, uh, looking nice out there someplace they're getting hit with some crazy weather shout outs to, and good energy going to those people affected by some of the tornadoes and everything. Um. 

Bold and strong for you. I grew up in Wisconsin. We did have those scary moments where tornadoes were a possibility. Uh, a lot of snow up in the Pacific Northwest. Got a friend out there, hopefully she's digging out right and melts quickly. But, uh, a little bit, uh, lucky here in Colorado. It's a beautiful day out.

And, uh, anyway, to the episode we're have a throwback. Uh, Emily, uh, Walbert, uh, she had a great mixed pity. Uh, with her all dressed up in a pink outfit that she did not like. She doesn't like, uh, those. But you'll hear that in the, uh, interview. We were at, uh, a wonderful dog friendly place. Uh, close Romero's Canine Club and tap House.

Awesome. Uh, outside venue area where you can take your dogs, enjoy some libations and some other people. It was a great pool party  and, uh,  here it is, Emily, take it away. 

Wait, is this backwards? They're a little goofy. So it goes down like that one. Oh, that one flips. Yeah. There you go.  Okay. And you said I have to lean in? Well, if you wanna scooch in a little bit, you're just gonna notice when you hear yourself in there. And it seems like your dog's.  Awesome. Oh yeah, she's wonderful. 

Alright, well we start off real quick. Your first full, your full name, and then your occupation and we're gonna get into it. Uh, I am Emily Walbert. I am a product manager and this is my dog, Andromeda, but we call her Andy. Andy. All right. And, and your product manager for what? What, what's the company? It's a data company.

Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. We just asked, and so we get a profile of who's talking and Yeah. Understanding. So, uh, and, and I might repeat myself, it's, we, we put these on the podcast and, uh,  the, so your dog's name. Mm-hmm. What kind of, what, what's the name again? I'm sorry. Andromeda. Andromeda. Mm-hmm. Call  him her, her, her.

Yeah. This lovely pink outfit. Yes.  That's adorable. Thank you. Your whole group has had these awesome outfits. Yeah. What's the reason for the outfit?  It's a party. We had to, you know, the dog gotta get dressed up and enjoy the party and you know, it's a pool party. So Hawaiian theme and yeah. You know, have a good time with it.

That's fantastic. And the name, where did the name come from?  Um, I, my background actually is. Educationally is in Greek and Roman art and archeology. Okay. Wow. So, yeah. Holy cow. So, um, our cat is named Persephone and when we got Andy Yeah. We were thinking through names and figured Andromeda a super cute name.

It's sort of weird, nerdy in a classical sense and weird, nerdy in a scientific sense. Sure. And then we call her Andy, like Andy McDowell. 'cause she's beautiful. Just like Andy McDowell for sure. Andy McDowell. And what kind of dog do you know? Yeah, we did a DNA test. Okay. Um, so she is a, um, Rottweiler, boxer, pit bull and lab.

She's gorgeous. The coloring, um, what, what they call that, what kind of coloring is that? I don't, I would say just dark brindle. Oh, brindle. Okay. Yeah. That's what the word I was looking for. I was thinking Meryl or Yeah, Bri.  Yeah. We'll get a picture for her so everyone can see you when you're on the podcast and everything like that.

But how long have you had her? Uh, Andy is just about a year and a half old. Okay. We've had her since March of 2021. Okay. And, yeah. Reason what, have you had a dog before or is this your first dog or, uh, I had dogs growing up. Okay. And then, you know, college and moving around and living in apartments. We, I had been wanting to get a dog for years.

Yeah. And then we finally moved into a house right before the pandemic started, and it was Oh, congratulations. Yeah, it was, yeah. That worked out. Oh my gosh. So much so. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I figured it was time to get a dog, so we were keeping our eye out and, yeah. Met the whole litter of puppies and she was the little one that every time we turned and talked to the puppies, her little head popped up and looked right at us.

You just, so we were like, that one's ours. I guess it was a match, right? Yeah. And were you looking for a specific breed or anything like that? Just, no, we were really looking more for behaviors and characteristics. I mean, our, our cat was feral before we got her, and she is eight. Nervous wreck all of the time.

Okay. So a dog that would fit into our household. Yeah. And, and the family was really what we were looking for. Sure. And how does she get along with the cat? Oh, very well. Um, she is super curious about the cat, but very gentle and they, um, they're not best friends, but they, okay, sure they are, can be in the same room together and they're totally fine.

And, and cohabitate very well. Well, that's great. Yeah. Have you, have you done any, um. Are you the specific trainer? Have you taken to any training or anything like that? Yeah, we, we've done a lot of, um, training classes actually. We're still in training classes. Okay. We go typically around once a week. And she's pretty young still.

So she's learning and developing. Yes, all the time. All the time. And, and I am, between me and my husband, I am primarily the one who takes her and does the training and practices at home and all of all of the things. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And, and is she's. She gets along with other dogs and uhhuh and Very good.

Um, is there any, any tricks or anything like that, that she can do yet? I mean, she does. Hey, Andy  Bow,  she might not do it. She, she does bow, she likes bow. Wow. I think right now. Wow. She does not love wearing clothes. Okay. So some, she's just like, you know, I'd rather just chill. But, um. And we've done a variety of classes.

We've done nose work classes so she can, you know, in hide a scent and she'll try to track it down. Interesting. And we've done some that are, um, called canine conditioning to help her with, uh, core strength and agility and mobility for healthiness and, you know, prevent bad accidents and stuff. And so she knows how to Wow.

Put her paws on stuff and pivot around her backend around it. And, um, all sorts of fun little, little tricks.  She, with that. What made you get into that?  I mean, part of it was our trainer was offering it. Okay. And it looked interesting. Yeah. And she, you know, she is really young and she went through a phase where she was kind of over the obedient stuff and was a little burnt out on it.

Okay. So we're like, well, let's do something else. And then it turned out to be super fun. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. What's one of the, do you have a favorite moment where you remember something specifically that. You learned or you started going through what? Tell, tell us about that. Yeah. I think with the conditioning, there's a lot of stuff with, you know, inflatable objects or wobbly objects.

Okay. To help them, you know, figure out how to control their own bodies and they, all of that kind of makes her a little bit nervous. And so the first few times going through stuff, it was always kind of just trying to encourage her to go through. And actually, um, my friend Ian, who you were talking to earlier, I was.

Babysitting or we were housesitting, her dog and I pulled out one of the wobbly things to practice with Andy, and all of a sudden that sense of competitiveness came out. Yeah. And she was like, oh, I can do this. This is nothing. And she just started jumping on all the things. Come on. Okay. Awesome. That was really, really fun.

That's so neat. Yeah. So it's like a platform that like. Tilts when she steps on it and stuff, which of course makes dogs nervous, right? Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Did, did, does she go in the water or anything like that or? She's not huge on water. Okay. Yet, which is super weird 'cause she's part lab. Right. And you think that she'd be all over it, but she's not yet.

We've been kind of working on it, getting her her paws in like little kitty pools and, and seeing get, helping her get comfortable. Especially 'cause it's so hot. Oh my gosh. It's, and and what do you do to keep her cool?  Um, I often make, um, little like. Puppy popsicles. Awesome. So like, you know, taste, how do you make that, I mean, you know, all sorts of things that are good.

Like a Greek yogurt or a couple of different treats or mix it in with, you know, anywhere you can get like the bone broth or whatever and mix it all up. And then you um, I have some molds in the shapes of like little bones and come on and stuff. This is the first I'm ever hearing this. I'm gonna look this up now for my dogs.

Yeah, it's amazing. Oh, totally. You can mash up bananas and stick them in there. I mean, really anything that they like to eat and you just. Freeze 'em. And that's amazing. You learn something new every day. So where did you hear of this? Um, I think I just saw the molds online. Okay. And I'm like, that looks cute.

I should figure out something to do with that. That's awesome. Awesome. Yeah. And then I found out like lots of other people I know saw them too and are doing the same thing. So I, it's not just me. I've never heard of this, so I'm, now I'm, I, you know, I have to, 'cause my dogs are this, they're, they're.  They are definitely.

Wow. She is just amazing. She's a good girl. She, she is really good. Does she bark at all? She, she does bark when people walk up to the house. Okay. Um, and that's another thing we've been working on, like, you know, a couple of alert barks. Great. Don't lose your mind. Yeah. But she's gotten really, really good about.

Like, Hey, hey, there's somebody here. And then comes running for one of us. Yeah. And we're like, don't worry, I'll take care of it. Oh look, it's just the neighbor taking their own groceries and calm down.  That's funny. She gets very offended by people living their lives. Yeah. Well, I mean, she's, she's taking care of mom and dad, right?

Yeah. Um. And, and, and that, that's fantastic. Is there, um, so come to dog friendly Romero's, uh oh. Yeah. Where else, where else is your, your jam? Do you guys hike or is there anything like that? To do the Colorado thing, we, um, there are so many beautiful lakes around the area. We like to go to the lakes and like, walk around the, the lakes and just enjoy that.

Yeah. Um, a lot. And I mean. Breweries. Like there's so many breweries that are dog friendly. I know, right? And we spend a lot of time, I'm the same way. So we do it at other breweries who do this podcast, but that's the point of it, is just to listen to people and what they do and yeah. Um, so that's fantastic.

Um, so, uh, she does bow any other tricks that she does? Um, she's learning sit pretty. Okay. Um, she, she's, it takes so much core strength and she's a bigger dog. Yeah. So it's, she's still still getting there with it, but she's learning sit pretty, but she's young so she's got time to learn for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

And she's so obedient, just hanging out with us. Yeah. Everything like that. Uh, another thing we ask all of our, so you are now a howler on the, uh, podcast. That's what we're calling them. Nice. Yeah. The Dog Cast podcast. Um, if, if your dog. Uh, if she could say five phrases, what would they be? So I'll give you an example.

My dog loves balls. Dad, throw the ball. So I take it You can't use that one unless it's one. That's okay. Yeah, I'm just, but I'm just giving you the chip shot. Oh, yeah. Nice, nice. Okay. Let's see. Five phrases that Andy would say. Um,  she would definitely say, Hey, stop working and play with me. Oh my goodness.

All the time. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. She would like, I work from home a lot. Sure. And she just comes up and like boots her little nose against my leg and she's like, Hey, stop that. Come play. Melts your heart. Come on. Yeah. That's amazing. Um, I think it usually it hits a certain time of night and she thinks it's bedtime and wants us all to go to, so she'd probably like, Hey guys, it's bedtime.

Like, let's all, let's all just go to bed now. Um, she would definitely do that. Um, more treats. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at those eyes. Yeah, it's adorable. All right. You got two more? I've got two more. Um,  uh, I wanna see my friends all the time. Like she got other friends. Oh, these guys. Yeah, these guys. I gotta get a picture of all, all of y'all.

Yes, you do. They're so good because this is amazing. Yeah. This is like just one at a time, just getting 'em up here. But all I wanna see my friends. One more. One more.  Um,  oh gosh.  I probably not right now. Okay. Like, you ask her to do things, she's like, you know what, I'm tired. Not right now. Like, I don't, she's got her own, wanna do the thing she's got.

That's awesome. She's got a streak of stubbornness in it. Good for her. In her. Yeah. So I'm, I, I've listened to a, a book on tape. Um-huh. It's called Dogs Are Mirrors. So what do you think that she mirrors you? That, that piece of it? Or what else is there? I mean, it could definitely be not right now. Oh my goodness.

I think, um.  You know she is. She's a real, she's young, so she's still got energy and stuff, but she's really chill. She loves to be around people. Yeah. Um, she just kind of loves life and I, I wanna hope that that's a mirror of us mom. Yeah. Like that's, I'm just like enjoying life and what there is to offer, and it doesn't have to be big or crazy, but just all the little moments.

That. And that's so true. The three of you gals with your dogs out here, again, I gotta get photos of you. Thank you so much for being on the podcast with us. Absolutely. It's super fun. Um, you know, I'm gonna get a little bit of, uh, information from you just so that I can take a picture and get you, you know, email when it comes on.

But yeah. Cheers. Thank you so much. Enjoy this lovely day and wow. This is great. Andy. Andy, Andy. Love it. Yes. Thank you. Absolutely.  And that's a wrap for this week. Thank you, Emily, so much. Uh, it was enjoyable to sit down and talk about, uh, Andy.  Which is, uh,  the short name for, uh,  Roeder, which is a fantastic name for a dog.

If you want to go look up the word Andro. I, I had to just to make sure the spelling for the notes was right and everything, but, uh, yeah, that was great. Uh, thank you, uh, Romero's that, uh, your place is fantastic. Hopefully I can get over there again. Um, fantastic place to take your dog here and, uh, if you're.

In the Lafayette area, Lafayette, Colorado. So,  um, yeah. And onto, uh, reviews. And so I am, uh, in lack of better,  no, no, uh,  uh, excuse other than the excuses that I, I'm, I'm  finishing up a book, audio book  and, uh, the audio book is called Dog Land by, uh, Tommy Tomlinson. And it's, it's a great. Uh, discussion about the Westminster Dog Show.

I want to give that, um, next week's review, uh, because it's, I wanna get a little bit.  Into it and give some more justice of the review. Great book. But, uh, this week I'm gonna go back to the, the Trixie Mad Scientists Turnaround Dog Puzzle Toy. I said I would, uh, give an update in 30 days. I think that was about two weeks ago, maybe even three weeks ago.

However, I wanted to give an update and, uh, so people can understand. So my healer. I thought it was gonna take a lot longer. Uh, she had no interest in it in the, in the first week or so, but I sat down and I think I got 30 minutes in and she started pawning at it. It,  I was like, geez. It just like clicked, clicked in her head.

And so at first she was, she just sat there and I would actually like, kind of nudge it towards her and then I would spin one with my hand and she would see him fall out and she would eat it.  But, uh. I also tried to do it, uh, so that, that, that didn't really work. But I tried it in the evening when she was about close to eating time too, and all of a sudden she started to paw at it and she did it a couple times.

So it worked on it for like 15 minutes or so. Uh, I, she just didn't want anything to do it. I, I fed her. I actually did it a little later that night, and. I took some video of it, it was so hysterical, but she actually started p pawing at it and moving it on her own, which is great. Uh, I, she's not totally convinced of it, but she's got it.

My pity on the other hand, uh, he barks at it. Uh, I, I, I did the same concept with him and, uh, you know.  Around feeding time, spun it with my hand and he just looks at it. He he'll eat the crap out of it and go for it, but I think he's gonna need a little bit more time. But the healer. Uh, I'm gonna keep working at it.

I'll give it another, uh, week. I'll, I'll do a update on it and, uh, we'll go from there. But, uh, great. Um, a little feature keeps, uh, your, your dog's brain going, trying to plot it. I, I think it, it takes probably some dogs, a little bit more effort, but the healer Got it. Um.  Dur durability's. Great. Uh, I'll give all the other, uh, feedbacks, but I just want to give an update That healer's getting it pity, not so much.

But that's all we got through this week, uh, next week. Excited for another great episode. Everybody pet them dogs. Today's episode was written and produced by Alpine Howell, and I'm your host, Brandon Bennett.  Check out alpine how.com for the latest dog year. Get yourself a handcrafted scarf for your dog and a matching hat for you.

That's how you keep warm this winter. I.  And stylish. And when it comes to that, summertime fun. Get yourself a ball cap.  Keep that sun on your eyes and a matching bandana alpine how? Dot com.  Remember at de dollars.  If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at info@alpinehow.com  would like to be on the show.

Also, drop us a line.  Also give us a follow at Alpine Howell on Instagram.  Let everybody know,  and if you like the show, subscribe, share it. It's on all the platforms that you listen to. Your podcast.  Have a good day.