Friday, January 14, 2005
Cooter the Destroyer
Rob’s dog, Cooter, is a nice little dog. OK, not exactly “little”, but not huge or anything. He’s manageable. He’s a border collie-regular collie cross. He is very, very cute, and has these folded-over ears and bright eyes, and when he cocks his head to look at you like you’re nuts, you can’t help but feel all your anger dissolve instantly into absolute and total love for the little creature.
However, Cooter is a little devil, and I think he knows he’s cute, and I think he uses it to his advantage. Where the NoodleDog likes all things food (pretty much anything, as I’m sure I’ve detailed here before), Cooter loves to chew up stuff that he’s not supposed to get. The list included many things up until this week: 1 roll drywall tape, 1 Christmas Picture (the good one from the Mobility Christmas party - he left the other two which were not as good), 1 bottle of Lysol (which he emptied onto the living room carpet before chewing up), 3 dog beds (completely shredded), 1 string Christmas lights (unplugged, thank god), 1 case cat food (minus the 3 salmon-flavoured cans which he didn't like for some reason and only chewed up rather than actually ate), 1 10-kg bag of sugar, 1 Atari, 2 Atari paddles, and 1 Intellivision.
This week, Cooter has outdone himself. The other evening, when I got home (they’re lucky I get home before Rob does, or there would be severe punishments), Cooter darted out the door before I could even look at the kitchen to see what he had managed to destroy. We had taken pretty much everything out of the kitchen, which is where the dogs are confined during the day so Cooter doesn’t demolish the house, but I like to leave a dog bed for the NoodleDog to lie on (man, that dog likes his comfort). Cooter is really quite active and doesn’t seem to have much time to lie around, but the NoodleDog likes to have somewhere soft to lie down. Either way, the NoodleDog seems powerless to stop the destruction, and Cooter likes to chew stuff, so the only thing available nowadays is the NoodleDog’s dog bed. Which was shredded when I got home that afternoon. The stuffing was everywhere, literally, in the kitchen, and the NoodleDog was trying to lie on the largest remaining intact piece of fluff from inside the bed.
So Cooter, knowing he had done wrong, but apparently being completely unable to stop himself, ran outside before I could tell him “BAD CHEWY!!! BAD!!!”, and when I tried to get him to come inside, he wouldn’t. He just looked at me from across the yard, tilting his head, trying to figure out what his chances of escaping punishment were (slim, but not non-existent). I had to leave him outside when I left to pick up Smudge from the vet and take her over to my parents’ place for recuperation time (she had been in to get spayed). Cooter was very lucky that is wasn’t that cold out that afternoon, because the next day, the temperature plummeted to –30C with a severe windchill. It has been too cold to leave him outside for even just half a day for three days now. Poor guy. His ears would freeze, and he gets these little balls of ice built-up between his toes when he stays outside for any prolonged period now that there is snow everywhere. Rob has walked them in the mornings for the past few days (thanks!), but they’ve been short walks, and I think the NoodleDog gets really cold. He has bare skin on his tummy and under his arms! He can’t stay out in this weather. And it’s not like Cooter is a husky or anything, with a thick layer of insulation under his top-coat of fur – he’s just got a lot of hair, really.
At any rate, the following day, we kept on taking everything out of the kitchen, or we put it up where we thought he couldn’t get it. Cooter then learned to jump up onto the kitchen table and get stuff off to chew on and destroy, and in addition to that, he turned his attention to shoes (one of mine, the demise of which greatly saddens me) and sandals (Rob’s – he’s the only person who would have sandals lying around this time of year!). He got a box with a sweater in it off the kitchen table, and the repair manual for the Jeep, and as if that wasn’t enough, he chewed the kitchen table leg to smithereens. SMITHEREENS!
So, again, they were lucky I got home first. I cleaned up most of the mess, and then I called Rob to let him know we were gonna need that crate I lent to Buzz… we can’t continue to lose things to the dog! Even if he is so damned cute! So we got the crate, and I think both of us felt guilty about putting him in there, so we have tried an alternate route: We have put cayenne pepper on everything in the kitchen. We cayanned the table & chair legs. We cayanned the shoes that he had chewed. We cayanned rags and left them around as bait to see if he’ll chew them.
So far, it has worked. He didn’t destroy too much yesterday, and I was impressed when I got home in the afternoon – only the dog bed was destroyed, and there were a few forbidden things lying on the floor, but they were intact. I did notice that the water dish contained a few clumps of cayenne pepper, so presumably, he gave it a try and didn’t like the cayenne, and then had to go and drink some water to wash out his mouth. We have left him un-crated again today in the hopes that he proves we don’t have to crate him, but at least we have the option now.
The worst thing is that Cooter now expects me to be mad at him when I get home after work. I feel terrible, because the poor little fellow looked so sad when I got home yesterday, and he kind of shrank away from me petting him and telling him he was good for not destroying more in the kitchen (I figure the dog bed shredding is a par for the course with leaving him inside for the day when he’s used to being outside chewing on whatever he can get his little teeth on). He really knows when he’s in trouble, but I don’t think he really understands why we’re so upset. I would hate for him to associate my coming home with bad things. I love how he brings me his toys as soon as I get home, hoping I’ll play with him (which I usually do), and he’s the most adorable hug-y dog – he puts his front paws on my shoulders and leans in to me for hugs!
So if you know of effective methods of teaching dogs not to chew your stuff, let me know. With the NoodleDog, he chewed a couple of things, but I showed him the items, told him he was Very Bad, and then imprisoned him in his crate for a little while so he could think about what he had done, and he pretty much stopped chewing. I had thought he would be a lot harder to train because everyone told me Labs have a propensity to chew everything, especially furniture, but so far, he hasn’t show any interest in chewing much that isn’t food. Sure, he gets into chocolate chips and cakes and cheezies from the counter, but that’s edible, and I can’t really blame him for that because he’s only following his instinct to EAT. With Cooter, he just chews anything. He gets bored, I’m sure, because the NoodleDog won’t play with him during naptime, and he’s really used to being able to do whatever he wants. With the cats moving in at the end of February, I can’t see us locking everyone in the kitchen for long. The cats won’t like that at all.
Anyway, here’s hoping that when I get home, the kitchen is intact, and that Cooter doesn’t shun me. And that the weather gets a WHOLE LOT BETTER. –30C is TOO COLD.
However, Cooter is a little devil, and I think he knows he’s cute, and I think he uses it to his advantage. Where the NoodleDog likes all things food (pretty much anything, as I’m sure I’ve detailed here before), Cooter loves to chew up stuff that he’s not supposed to get. The list included many things up until this week: 1 roll drywall tape, 1 Christmas Picture (the good one from the Mobility Christmas party - he left the other two which were not as good), 1 bottle of Lysol (which he emptied onto the living room carpet before chewing up), 3 dog beds (completely shredded), 1 string Christmas lights (unplugged, thank god), 1 case cat food (minus the 3 salmon-flavoured cans which he didn't like for some reason and only chewed up rather than actually ate), 1 10-kg bag of sugar, 1 Atari, 2 Atari paddles, and 1 Intellivision.
This week, Cooter has outdone himself. The other evening, when I got home (they’re lucky I get home before Rob does, or there would be severe punishments), Cooter darted out the door before I could even look at the kitchen to see what he had managed to destroy. We had taken pretty much everything out of the kitchen, which is where the dogs are confined during the day so Cooter doesn’t demolish the house, but I like to leave a dog bed for the NoodleDog to lie on (man, that dog likes his comfort). Cooter is really quite active and doesn’t seem to have much time to lie around, but the NoodleDog likes to have somewhere soft to lie down. Either way, the NoodleDog seems powerless to stop the destruction, and Cooter likes to chew stuff, so the only thing available nowadays is the NoodleDog’s dog bed. Which was shredded when I got home that afternoon. The stuffing was everywhere, literally, in the kitchen, and the NoodleDog was trying to lie on the largest remaining intact piece of fluff from inside the bed.
So Cooter, knowing he had done wrong, but apparently being completely unable to stop himself, ran outside before I could tell him “BAD CHEWY!!! BAD!!!”, and when I tried to get him to come inside, he wouldn’t. He just looked at me from across the yard, tilting his head, trying to figure out what his chances of escaping punishment were (slim, but not non-existent). I had to leave him outside when I left to pick up Smudge from the vet and take her over to my parents’ place for recuperation time (she had been in to get spayed). Cooter was very lucky that is wasn’t that cold out that afternoon, because the next day, the temperature plummeted to –30C with a severe windchill. It has been too cold to leave him outside for even just half a day for three days now. Poor guy. His ears would freeze, and he gets these little balls of ice built-up between his toes when he stays outside for any prolonged period now that there is snow everywhere. Rob has walked them in the mornings for the past few days (thanks!), but they’ve been short walks, and I think the NoodleDog gets really cold. He has bare skin on his tummy and under his arms! He can’t stay out in this weather. And it’s not like Cooter is a husky or anything, with a thick layer of insulation under his top-coat of fur – he’s just got a lot of hair, really.
At any rate, the following day, we kept on taking everything out of the kitchen, or we put it up where we thought he couldn’t get it. Cooter then learned to jump up onto the kitchen table and get stuff off to chew on and destroy, and in addition to that, he turned his attention to shoes (one of mine, the demise of which greatly saddens me) and sandals (Rob’s – he’s the only person who would have sandals lying around this time of year!). He got a box with a sweater in it off the kitchen table, and the repair manual for the Jeep, and as if that wasn’t enough, he chewed the kitchen table leg to smithereens. SMITHEREENS!
So, again, they were lucky I got home first. I cleaned up most of the mess, and then I called Rob to let him know we were gonna need that crate I lent to Buzz… we can’t continue to lose things to the dog! Even if he is so damned cute! So we got the crate, and I think both of us felt guilty about putting him in there, so we have tried an alternate route: We have put cayenne pepper on everything in the kitchen. We cayanned the table & chair legs. We cayanned the shoes that he had chewed. We cayanned rags and left them around as bait to see if he’ll chew them.
So far, it has worked. He didn’t destroy too much yesterday, and I was impressed when I got home in the afternoon – only the dog bed was destroyed, and there were a few forbidden things lying on the floor, but they were intact. I did notice that the water dish contained a few clumps of cayenne pepper, so presumably, he gave it a try and didn’t like the cayenne, and then had to go and drink some water to wash out his mouth. We have left him un-crated again today in the hopes that he proves we don’t have to crate him, but at least we have the option now.
The worst thing is that Cooter now expects me to be mad at him when I get home after work. I feel terrible, because the poor little fellow looked so sad when I got home yesterday, and he kind of shrank away from me petting him and telling him he was good for not destroying more in the kitchen (I figure the dog bed shredding is a par for the course with leaving him inside for the day when he’s used to being outside chewing on whatever he can get his little teeth on). He really knows when he’s in trouble, but I don’t think he really understands why we’re so upset. I would hate for him to associate my coming home with bad things. I love how he brings me his toys as soon as I get home, hoping I’ll play with him (which I usually do), and he’s the most adorable hug-y dog – he puts his front paws on my shoulders and leans in to me for hugs!
So if you know of effective methods of teaching dogs not to chew your stuff, let me know. With the NoodleDog, he chewed a couple of things, but I showed him the items, told him he was Very Bad, and then imprisoned him in his crate for a little while so he could think about what he had done, and he pretty much stopped chewing. I had thought he would be a lot harder to train because everyone told me Labs have a propensity to chew everything, especially furniture, but so far, he hasn’t show any interest in chewing much that isn’t food. Sure, he gets into chocolate chips and cakes and cheezies from the counter, but that’s edible, and I can’t really blame him for that because he’s only following his instinct to EAT. With Cooter, he just chews anything. He gets bored, I’m sure, because the NoodleDog won’t play with him during naptime, and he’s really used to being able to do whatever he wants. With the cats moving in at the end of February, I can’t see us locking everyone in the kitchen for long. The cats won’t like that at all.
Anyway, here’s hoping that when I get home, the kitchen is intact, and that Cooter doesn’t shun me. And that the weather gets a WHOLE LOT BETTER. –30C is TOO COLD.
