After much thought about the dog bite marks, and several people telling me it makes a good conversation piece, I decided to steam them and get as much out as possible and then leave it.
It is barely noticeable and if I tried to fill and sand it, I think it would turn out worse than before.
My 'mentor' had a son to get married and then other things of life that have kept us from working on it for about a month or so. This past weekend, I spent most of the day on Saturday getting a lesson on fret jobs. He showed me the tools and technique and handed me the files after a little bit of setup that he did. Basically, he laid the neck on the bench and used a straightedge and to check for high or low frets. I had a high one on the third fret. The rest were pretty good! Then then marked each fret with a red marker and then he used a 12" radius sanding block and sanded all the red ink away.
Next step was to mount the neck in his vise and he gave me one lesson on taping, marking, filing and sanding the frets.
about two hours later, I had them completed. We then checked it with the straightedge again to make sure they were flat and none were low. He was very happy with it so I must have been a quick study! He took the body over to a room he uses as a paint room and after attached his paint broom stick handle jig, he sprayed on a few coats of clear lacquer for a base coat. I think the plan this weekend is to go back and wet sand that, then start with the color layers. HE says about 8 more coats and if I don't sand thru the layers it should be really nice! Then we will leave it to dry for about a month.PIctures to follow!