Greatest American Dog - "Salvador Doggy" (Episode 105)

Laura asks Travis if he's going to miss Brandy and he, in his own, Travis way, says no ("Who am I going to make cry everyday and then cheer up everyday?" Sounds like a big ol' no to me.) Travis is looking forward to forging friendships with the other people in the house, and made Brandy sound like a jealous girlfriend (well, she was jealous....) JD asks Travis if he and Laura are "swapping numbers" after the show. Well, he can if he wants to now, since the green-eyed monster has gone. As everyone goes to bed, we see Laura and Travis having a heart-to-heart, talking about their dogs. Laura says it's important to find a dog lover to form a relationship with. Travis thinks Laura is fun and cool (oh, and cute too) and loves that she's quite fond of Presley. The love connection begins.

Bill is feeding Star pretzels and tells JD he has to "read the label" before Star can have a snack, so he proceeds to read while Star patiently waits with a pretzel hanging out of her mouth. She doesn't eat it until Bill says it's okay. I hope my dog was paying attention to that little trick. This leads us to this week's theme, intelligence. Jarod tells the gang that today's Dog Bone Challenge is called "Doggie IQ." Beth Joy is happy because she says that Bella's "very smart." She was actually told that her dog was smarter than she was. Yep, jokes write themselves on this show too. Each dog has to figure out how to get to a favorite treat on the other side of a wall (they can see and smell the treat courtesy of a very narrow opening in the center of the wall. They have a five minute time limit, but the pooch with the quickest time wins. The owners can only use two commands, "go find it" and "go get it." The winners get access to the Dog Bone Suite and the "leg up" advantage for the next challenge. Travis and Presley are up first. Presley figured out pretty quickly how to find his way around the wall and get to his treats and had a time of 25.19 seconds. Little teeny Preston kept trying to dig through the opening to get at the treats (he could almost squeeze through.) He finally figured out the challenge and made it to the treats in 2:53. I didn't have high hopes for Bella after she spent the first few seconds shaking and sniffing around the wall, but she surprisingly made it to the treats in an impressive 15.47 seconds. Andrew keot looking at Laurie. Apparently he's not too hungry - and failed the test. JD doesn't see any threats among his competitors and thinks Galaxy will have no problem winning, and the dog made it in 15.25 seconds. I was hoping he would fail miserably, because he's getting cockier and cockier with each episode. Leroy barked a lot, ran over to Jarod and completed the test (we didn't see his time, but it was way over 15 seconds.) Last up is Star. Bill says she's very food motivated and she sure looks to be, as she quickly found her treat. We also don't see her time, but she could be the big winner. And the winner is...Star, who finished the course in 8.34 seconds. You go, Bill! Bill gets the bone and says "Wait a second." Is he going to reward Teresa for her generosity from last week?

Of course he is! Bill repays the favor - can Bill be my new grandpa? Teresa was thrilled and surprised by Bill's generosity. See? All good deeds are rewarded. Where Bill had pictures of his wife and grandkids all over the room, the suite is now decorated with pictures of Leroy. That's kind of sad. Teresa says Leroy will enjoy the suite more than she will. Bill hopes what he did won't "bite him in the heinie." I hope not either. Jarod is back with the Best in Show challenge, called 'Salvador Doggy", where the pairs will create a painting that shows the bond between dog and owner. There's (of course) a twist - the dog is going to be solely responsible for the painting. The teams have a day to create their "masterpieces." The judges are looking for creativity, technique and use of tools. Teresa's "leg up" comes in the form of Kirstin McMillan, a "Dog Art Instructor." I can't believe someone makes a living doing that. Poor Bill is colorblind and has no idea what to do in this challenge. He's going for "simplicity", dunking balls in paint and having Star nudge them across the canvas. He then covers the dog in blue (non-toxic) paint - what happened to simplicity? Teresa wanted to do theme of "learning" and Kirstin helped her out. Teresa was grateful to have the "leg up" in this difficult challenge. Travis knows he has to "step it up" and tells Preston to "put his game face on." He wants to keep the activity fun for Presley. He's going with a "footprints" theme. He put peanut butter on the end of a roller brush and Presley painted away. Beth Joy made Bella suffer for her art, causing her to yelp as she tried to press some stamps onto the canvas. Beth says Bella's a natural artist and gives her a new nickname - "Paw-casso." Spare me, please. Bella's not happy with this project; being a pup with front paw issues, she didn't like getting them covered in paint. Travis noted that Bella was yelping a lot. Hmmm....Laura came up with a concept of her and Preston's silohuettes together in a heart. Gag me. As Teresa said, however, "that's a lot of paint." I think Laura's being a little over-ambitious. Laurie wants her theme to convey that she's in charge and Andrew is just a dog. JD decides to go with a "young at heart" theme, using stamps with the words "play", "fun" and "games." He gets Galaxy to roll over on the canvas and finds out he had the letters backwards. Oops!

With three hours until the elimination, the dogs get time for a little R&R. Andrew enjoys a walk on a doggie treadmill and JD shows off some frisbee tricks for Travis. Presley's a whiz at attacking his dog bed. Travis says he's somewhat surprised he's made it so far in the competition and says he wants to teach his new dog all of the "old tricks" that the other dogs can do. Laura is still working on her painting. She had a mishap with the paint and tried to cover up her mistake. Bill asked if he could help out. I love that guy. Laura is freaking out.

It's time for the Best in Show challenge. Beth Joy and Bella are first and the judges put on their best fake smiles when they see her rainbow spiral, paw print-covered painting. Beth gives a lengthy description of the work, based on some Hawaiian thing. Victoria actually got choked up when she saw it. Laura mentioned that Bella yelped from backstage. Next is Bill. He did go for the simple approach. He painted the moon and the stars, which he said he'd give to have Star with him forever. Allan liked the concept but thought it was slightly predictable. Victoria wasn't seeing a lot of technique. Travis and Presley are next and the footprints thing worked. Travis admitted that until Presley came into his life, he had problems committing to women. Victoria liked the painting but again noted the lack of technique. Allan likes the simplicity of the message. JD's painting looked like colorful alphabet soup. Victoria's not impressed and slightly confused by the muddle of letters, as was Allan. Victoria refused to believe JD's explanation that he meant to put the letters backwards and squooshed together. Teresa's painting was actually pretty good. You can telll she had help. Wendy thinks she had the best definition and Victoria really liked it as well. Laurie's painting, called "He Ain't Heavy," was really simplistic - an outline of the dog with the words "trust", "respect," "team" and a heart. Blah. Allan was disappointed because he said it looked like a pep rally poster. Wendy wanted to see more of Andrew's personality in the painting. Last up are Laura and Preston. Their painting is a mess, or as Laura put it, "abstract." Wendy, not one to mince words, said it "sucked." Laura said that compared to some of the other dogs, she made sure that Preston's experience was as "comfortable" as possible. Gee, who could she be referring to? She did eventually call out Bella and Beth Joy and Beth Joy was pissed. Victoria thinks Laura could have done better. Backstage, Beth confronted Laura and called her fake and a liar. Laura said she wasn't going to fight and Beth went off sulking. Oh, I was so hoping for a knock-down, drag-out fight!

The judges have deliberated and have chosen a winner - Teresa and Leroy. We all saw that coming a mile away. Before the announcement of the bottom three, Victoria asks Beth Joy about Laura's accusations and Beth gets all defensive and teary, saying she never would intentionally hurt her dog. Travis, of all people, actually stuck up for Beth Joy, saying she takes very good care of her dog. Now it's Laura's turn to be pissed. The bottom three are Laura and Preston, JD and Galaxy and Laurie and Andrew. Phew! My boys Travis and Bill make it through to another week. Laura and Laurie were pointed out for not working hard enough and JD tried to pass off a mistake as intentional, so who's heading home? Laura and Preston are out. I was so hoping to see some drama next week between Laura and Travis after he defended Beth Joy. Oh well....Next week, a litter of puppies move in and havoc ensues.