What Pista Chewed, Part XIV

Aug 19, 2006 at 9:36 AM
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Last night Pista completely demolished 1 pair $200 snowboarding goggles and snuck into the shower where she found, dragged upstairs, and ultimately dismantled a 32 ounce bottle of moisturizer. This morning the floor of the loft was littered with the remains of same, one happy dog, and huge smears of lotion all over her dog bed.

Next step: Leave bathroom door closed at night and secure valuables in closet.

Edit: Now she's attempting to eat bamboo.

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Is Pista part lab? My labs used to eat anything and everything - the more precious the better. Shoes (especially mine). Socks. Underwear. Leather gloves. Sunglasses. A Thomas Guide. The cable. A rocking chair. Wood paneling from the side of the house...

Not that I know of. Part foxhound, maybe pitt. She's chewed numerous pairs of shoes, underwear, gloves, books, two Thinkpad power supplies, a sofa...

It took our labs two years to grow out of chewing - meaning that most of the major damage was done and the only other chewing after that was capricious (really, revenge). We used lot's of chew toys, kongs and nylabones to satisfy their oral fixations and it was never ok for them to have anything of ours - even if it was old. No old shoes, gloves, whatever because they can't tell the difference between old and new - it just smells like us which is exactly what they want. ;-)

Pista's a year and a half, so I hope she's almost there. She likes kongbones...

She's probably almost there, just going through the last stages of being a teenager. Too bad you can't get her a cell phone, threaten her boyfriend and call it a day.

Oh and ps, if Pista is a smart dog, as I suspect she may be, you're screwed. Dumb dogs chew to ease oral fixations and boredom (kind of like why I used to smoke). Smart dogs chew to make a statement.

When she wants to go outside, she'll bring me a left shoe. If she's unhappy, she'll chew the laces off it. Basically if it smells strongly of people, it's fair game.

I'm no dog whisperer, but my understanding is that personal stuff should be off-limits all of the time. If you let her bring you your shoe for one thing, and then punish her for it another time, it's easy for her to get confused. Play is play.

I don't mind the shoe bringing, only shoe chewing. Do you think she can discriminate between the two?

I bet the shoe bringing is super cute, but I think it would be hard for her to discriminate between good shoe behavior and bad shoe behavior. You like it when I bring the shoe, but not when I run away with it. I can get it wet when I carry it to you in my mouth but if I actually chew on it you get mad.

Even the smartest dogs like things kept simple, so if you divide the world between your toys and her toys, it makes it easy for her to stay out of trouble. Maybe you could get her to switch to bringing you a ball or some other outside toy when she wants to go out? My dog Maya used to bring me her leash when she wanted to go outside which made it very clear what she wanted.

I should have added, lest you think her an angel, that Maya is also the one who ate most of the furniture and the wood siding on the house...

What Pista Chewed, Part XIV

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