Thursday, March 29, 2007

Items Ruined by the D.O.G.G.

TV remote control & two AA batteries
my black walking shoes
nob for the washer
knitted hat
screen of my brand new iPod
her comb
a borrowed book
pens
fridge magnets
plastic dishes
her Coach collar
iPod remote control

She still chews something up about 1 in 3 or 4 times she is left alone.

Today I discovered that she has figured out how to move the crate I use to pen her in to the kitchen where I can control what she has access to. She also figured out how to open doors. She got into the office where I had stashed our shoes in case she did get out. Thankfully she left my brand new leather sandals alone. But, she munched the TV remote plus the batteries which meant another trip to the vet to see if she had a mangled one in her gut. Two hours later I picked up a sedated Newfy who had managed to not swallow a battery. Sleyed finally found it tucked in between the cushions of the couch. While she was being checked out I picked up a new universal remote.

At lunch I realized that all I really had to show for the $100 xray was the plastic bag I brought the remote home in.

My sister, who has NO IDEA what she signed up for when bringing a kid into the world, remarked in response to some other thing Newfy chewed up: I would never buy anything nice again.

Right. I'll get right on that solution.

Max went through this a while back. At one point he ate my SPSS disks, a bunch of chocolate truffles, coffee beans, a carved ostrich egg, and a few $20 bills which were not so munched they couldn't be spent... so we have been down this road before. With Max, all we had to worry about him going after was food, plastic, and erasers. He pretty much stuck to that. Newfy is an equal opportunity chewer. Anything is game. I do wonder what it will be next.

We need a better way to keep her penned in - especially if I am going to be working outside my home again!

2 comments:

Stormy The Sheltie said...

Wow! You are in the same league as my Uncle Diesel the labrador- he ate my grandparent's picnic table!

I trained with a dog who "de-fluffed" an entire couch while his owner was away!

My puppy mouth preferred softer items like a pair of brand new underwear Mommy brought home, her stuffed Eeyore and the strings on a hooded jacket...

Ask her about the time I presented a pair of her roommate's thong underwear to someone who was visiting our house...

Chase said...

This is not the answer but the way I avoided this with the MOO was to do sort of a Montessori thing with her. If she was chewing something squishy that wasn't hers, I didn't yell - I just took the bad item and replaced it in her mouth with a similarly textured and consistent approved toy. Something tough, replaced it with a Galileo nylabone or something like that. And honestly, I can say to this day she hasn't eaten anything that belonged to anyone other than herself...she guts her own stuffed animals in about six minutes flat but actually recoils from the baby's stuffed animals...

Hang in there - the key is consistency - hugs, me