thank you for your worries about the safety of my dog, but you can rest assured' machuca is absolutly safe. in fact she is much happier traveling around with me here than at the house in the states. we have the opportunity to spend much more time together than we do in the states. Also, to all whom may wonder, vets are ample in latin countries, and best of all' affordable! and of course they are easily as qualified as in our own
respective countries.
i aggree, labs are not the best guard dogs, due to their obvious affinity with us humans, however down here people tend to respect the space of dogs, if i could teach her how to stay with a bag, it would have my full confidence that it would be safe....
we have tried to leave her with a bag of manderins when we go into a church (for example) and she waits patiently for us, but does not even notice the bag.... regardless of what i say to her.
thanks for the imput, i look forward to more.