Hmm... on dog ownership...

[elsol]

You know how TV makes fun of kids and the excuse 'the dog ate my homework'...

It would seem that it is actually a possibility...

In one day, Krum ate my shoe, a DVD cover, a piece of the sofa, some of the wall, and ripped open another soccer ball.

If I ever have children and a dog, I will have have to watch the homework cause it seems to actually be true that a dog will eat the homework.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[Guest]

What if kid ate the dog?

 

[mack_the_knife]

Garden Hose, Weedeater, Dozens of Children's Toys, A Sledgehammer Handle.

Yeah, homework would be cake for our puppy.

 

[ElizabethWest]

Had to put down hardwood because of the hole the dogs ate in the carpet.

Amazing what the little fuckers can get into. Don't even get me started on what they did to my laptop.

 

[Guest]

Ate it?

 

[ElizabethWest]

Reliving the pain.

Post #10. On reflection it should be blamed on the ex. And yes, he is now an ex.

 

[Guest]

I just looked, and it must be over 30 days old since it is no longer in their archives, but there was a Marmaduke cartoon recently where the vet was looking at his x-ray and says "His stomach seems to be full of homework."

 

[timenabtl]

Oh...they eat everything! Ours has a passion for bras...not underware, bras. Don't know why.

But then you look at that cute little puppy face!

 

[Guest]

Oh...they eat everything! Ours has a passion for bras...not underware, bras. Don't know why.

But then you look at that cute little puppy face!

That has to be a guy dog! Or a reincarnation of a human guy.

 

[McKenna]

Oooh, I sympathize, elsol *cringe*


carpet, my textbook (not the homework, but close), my sweater, my shoes, magazines, paperbacks (apparently he's a bookworm), and the list goes on.

We ended up giving him those soft chew toys he could shred to bits. He did, and still does, often, but at least it saves our furniture!

 

[elsol]

It would be cool if he settled on a 'type' of chew toy.

Presently, he's just in a 'if it's on the floor, it's mine and I'm allowed to see if my mouth can make it 1000 pieces' phase.

*sigh*

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[McKenna]

It would be cool if he settled on a 'type' of chew toy.

Presently, he's just in a 'if it's on the floor, it's mine and I'm allowed to see if my mouth can make it 1000 pieces' phase.

*sigh*

Sincerely,
ElSol

Hang in there. It's tough being a parent.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Let's see ... to various dogs I've lost baseboards, a mop, a chalkboard eraser, all four arms on our two couches, a chair at the dining room table, any number of socks and pairs of underpants, pens, several dog beds, several bills and pieces of mail, and (rather amusingly) an entire copy of a novel by Virginia Woolf.

El Sol, I recommend something called a bully stick. They have very good prices at bullysticks.com on those and several other kinds of "natural" treat. It's a dried bull's penis, and if you can face having that in your house, it's quite a gripping chew treat. They come in all sorts of lengths. I used to work in a pet shop and had one customer who came in every week for more toys for her lab to destroy. Every week she got him a 36" bully stick. It was the only thing that kept him occupied for any length of time. My two girls are less aggressive chewers, so I get the 5" lengths and throw in a bone or two.

On the non-edibles, you might try something called a "Gallileo." You'll find it near the Nylabone-type toys. It's very tough and the shape seems to interest our more chew-y dog, anyway.

Shanglan

 

[elsol]

Let's see ... to various dogs I've lost baseboards, a mop, a chalkboard eraser, all four arms on our two couches, a chair at the dining room table, any number of socks and pairs of underpants, pens, several dog beds, several bills and pieces of mail, and (rather amusingly) an entire copy of a novel by Virginia Woolf.

El Sol, I recommend something called a bully stick. They have very good prices at bullysticks.com on those and several other kinds of "natural" treat. It's a dried bull's penis, and if you can face having that in your house, it's quite a gripping chew treat. They come in all sorts of lengths. I used to work in a pet shop and had one customer who came in every week for more toys for her lab to destroy. Every week she got him a 36" bully stick. It was the only thing that kept him occupied for any length of time. My two girls are less aggressive chewers, so I get the 5" lengths and throw in a bone or two.

On the non-edibles, you might try something called a "Gallileo." You'll find it near the Nylabone-type toys. It's very tough and the shape seems to interest our more chew-y dog, anyway.

Shanglan

I went for the bully stick (although I told the girlfriend it's only rawhide 'cause her eyes WIDENED the first time I told her the truth about what it was).

He seemed to like bullcock so I think I'm going keep to them... for the most part I think he hasn't been getting enough exercise or chewing treats.

I've tried indestructible toys... like an 8 pound weight ball... he figures out he can't take apart so finds something else.

That's what I get for thinking... "Boxer/Pitbull/bulldog, what an AWESOME combo!"

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[BlackShanglan]

I went for the bully stick (although I told the girlfriend it's only rawhide 'cause her eyes WIDENED the first time I told her the truth about what it was).

He seemed to like bullcock so I think I'm going keep to them... for the most part I think he hasn't been getting enough exercise or chewing treats.

I've tried indestructible toys... like an 8 pound weight ball... he figures out he can't take apart so finds something else.

That's what I get for thinking... "Boxer/Pitbull/bulldog, what an AWESOME combo!"

Sincerely,
ElSol

*grin* Yes, to me that does read "buzzsaw on feet." He's quite the cute one, though.

I've seen that a lot with "indestructable" toys; some dogs just really like chewing, and they work for them, but for others they actually enjoy destroying things and they don't play with things they can't shred. Some pet stores sell thick round cardboard rings that are meant to be good for the teeth and that also satisfy that destructive urge; last I got them they were something like three dollars for a pack of four and they kept the puppy busy for a while. Another route some people go is buying old stuffed animals from Goodwill. Cut out any hard pieces (usually eyes) and just let the dog shred it. Ours used to sell used stuffed toys for 25 cents, which was a good bargain. Another friend used to stop at the local bagel shop near closing and buy up what was left over. She'd leave them out for a few days until they were rock hard and then give them to the dog one at a time. That seemed to work pretty well too.

Kongs can be useful too. The most inventive use I've come across was a man who strung a rope through the Kong, then filled it with peanut butter and yogurt and treats and froze it solid in the fridge. Then he would dangle the thing just out of easy reach from a tree in his yard. It kept his dog busy for hours trying to get the food out, and when it finally had it was so tired that it was ready for a nap. Good solution to his original problem of the dog barking its head off when in the yard alone.

Shanglan

(Who spends far too much time thinking about this.)

 

[shereads]

My dog was an incorrigible teenager, an obedence class drop-out, a tantrum-thrower, and a dedicated unroller of toilet-paper rolls. The angrier I became, the more fun she thought we were having.

A private obedence trainer salvaged our relationship and turned her into an even better friend than she had been an enemy. Which is saying a lot.

Her specialty when she was Destructo-Dog was hard-bound books. She wrote her masters thesis on the best way to shred photo albums. We went to the emergency vet, twice, for X-rays; once, after she shredded an empty Diet Coke can into hundreds of tiny shards of aluminum; and again after she somehow removed a safety razor from a bathroom countertop three times her height, and left the handle on the sofa - minus the blade (it was later found hidden in her special stash of toys under my bed.)

The trainer told me, "She doesn't respect your things because she doesn't respect you." He taught me how to be her boss, and she stopped destroying my home. She also became more affectionate. I recommend obedence training for anybody whose dog is running - or ruining - the household.

My neighbors' jack russell terrier would be a great dog if they were willing to do some training. Instead, they leave the dog alone in the back yard 24/7, and then yell at him for digging, barking, or whatever else he does to try and alleviate his boredom and loneliness. When I suggested a trainer, the woman said, "No, he could never be trained. He's too hyper."

An average dog has the intelligence of an average 3-year-old child, and can be just as hard to live with if it's either bored or unsure of its status in your pack. My dog didn't have a submissive bone in her body, and unlike any of my previoius dogs she didn't respond to familiar training methods. The classes provided by your local humane society work fine for most dogs. For a hard case like my beast, a private trainer can work wonders.

She's 13 now, and continues to be the best-behaved dog at the dog park, at sidewalk cafes, and anyplace else where I take her. No one who knows her believes me when Ii tell them about Destructo-Dog, who once bit my nose because she wanted to sit beside my date on the sofa.

 

[cantdog]

The trainer told me, "She doesn't respect your things because she doesn't respect you." He taught me how to be her boss, and she stopped destroying my home. She also became more affectionate. I recommend obedence training for anybody whose dog is running - or ruining - the household.

You are in the dog's pack, like it or not. That is the basis of the relationship. If the dog imagines it outranks you within the pack structure, you will have nothing but trouble. You must dominate it to coexist on reasonable terms.

 

[shereads]

Let's see ... to various dogs I've lost baseboards, a mop, a chalkboard eraser, all four arms on our two couches, a chair at the dining room table, any number of socks and pairs of underpants, pens, several dog beds, several bills and pieces of mail, and (rather amusingly) an entire copy of a novel by Virginia Woolf.

El Sol, I recommend something called a bully stick. They have very good prices at bullysticks.com on those and several other kinds of "natural" treat. It's a dried bull's penis, and if you can face having that in your house, it's quite a gripping chew treat. They come in all sorts of lengths. I used to work in a pet shop and had one customer who came in every week for more toys for her lab to destroy. Every week she got him a 36" bully stick. It was the only thing that kept him occupied for any length of time. My two girls are less aggressive chewers, so I get the 5" lengths and throw in a bone or two.

On the non-edibles, you might try something called a "Gallileo." You'll find it near the Nylabone-type toys. It's very tough and the shape seems to interest our more chew-y dog, anyway.

Shanglan

Be careful with edible chew-toys. An aggressive chewer will sometimes rip off chunks of a rawhide that ard large enough to choke on - I was lucky that I was in the room when it happened to my dog, or she'd have choked to death. I got the rawhide dislodged from her throat by lifting her back legs so that gravity could do the work.

As a puppy, she swallowed whole one of those knotted tug-toys that are made of fabric thread and are sold as safer than rawhide. If it had been untied when she swallowed it, the vet said it might have twist-tied the puppy's intestines and killed her. instead, she somehow managed to throw it up, still in one piece, before I even noticed it missing.

If your dog's problem with chewing isn't related to teething or puppy immaturity, an obedience trainer might be a big help. No matter what toys they have, something of yours will always be preferable to a dog that's trying to be dominant.

Once the destruction-for-dominance issue is solved, if that's what it is, there are tons of new entertaining toys for dogs who are left alone and unsupervised for part of the day. Those durable rubber Galileos and Kongs sometimes have a hole in them where you can stash peanut butter or a chunk of a Milkbone to make them interesting. My dog also enjoys a rolling "puzzle ball" that dispenses dry dog food, one piece at a time.

 

[cantdog]

And the Bush head.

 

[shereads]

And the Bush head.

I should put some kibble in Squeaky President Bush's Head!

Unless there's some in there already. That would explain a lot.

 

[hotchkiss]

My Mal luvs socks clean or dirty, usually he keeps them down for a day or so then throws them up or they pass right through. Either way they dont get worn again!

 

[cantdog]

A sock fetish is relatively harmless. Cool to see you again, Hotchkiss!

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Dogs pretty much need to be given a lot of chew toys when they're pups, and shown the difference between what they can chew on and what they can't chew on. We have 3 Malamutes and all three of them know what they can or cannot have. It's not so easy whith adults, but possible.

 

[elsol]

He's okay with knowing who is the boss though because of shifting work schedule I haven't been able to take him back for the next level of dog training.

I do think it has more to do with exercise; I took him out today to chase frisbees and he was calm the rest of the day.

Plus I let him destroy a softball... he sticks the entire thing in his mouth and gnaws away at it.

*sigh*

Gotta remember that... exercise, exercise, exercise

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[arienette]

Some of the wall? Are these Hulk dogs?