Bad dog
Our lab/pointer puppy, Popcorn, is just past 7 months old now. As far as puppies go, she's been pretty good. She hasn't had an accident in the house in three months, she hasn't eaten the cat yet, and she's not chewing on everything in sight like some puppies do. She a friendly pup that still jumps up on people to say hi. We're trying to train that out of her, but at least she loves meeting new people so much that she wants to say hi. We are lucky and feel blessed to have found and adopted her last summer. But ...
Popcorn is quite the chewer when she gets going. She's gone through a computer cord, some headphones, the protective case on my smartphone (that was months ago, though, and I'm happy to say, the case sacrificed itself and protected the phone), a couple puppy blankets, numerous puppy toys and one puppy bed for her crate. After she tore apart the first bed, we splurged and bought her a supposedly indestructible Kong bed. She loved it, until yesterday, when she chewed threw the end of it (there are three sections to the bed -- a long square and two encased pillows on the ends) and tore out all the stuffing.
Needless to say, we weren't happy. She knew she did something bad, too, and sulked, but didn't quite apologize to Lori like I thought she would. To non-dog owners, dogs will apologize when they know they did something bad. Lori sewed up the empty end, and after debating whether we should just let her sleep in the empty crate, we put the bed back in.
Tonight, when Michael left his dinner in too accessible a place for a puppy, Popcorn ate the food. That earned a trip to the crate. And what does she do while she's there? Attack the side she tore up before. There's nothing left for her to pull out of the pillow, but she went at it again. We've tried the bitter apple spray, which she seems to ignore. She's back on her bed tonight, but I'm wondering if we need to let her go a few days sleeping on the hard crate floor. Maybe then she'll figure out not to destroy the things that are meant for her comfort.
Maggie, our cat, got the last laugh. After putting Popcorn in her crate sans bed after we noticed her trying to chew it again, the bed was outside her crate, and Maggie made herself cozy on it, right in front of the dog. Maggie has been kind of a brat lately too, purposely knocking down anything up high just because she can. I think the two animals are conspiring against us.
Popcorn is quite the chewer when she gets going. She's gone through a computer cord, some headphones, the protective case on my smartphone (that was months ago, though, and I'm happy to say, the case sacrificed itself and protected the phone), a couple puppy blankets, numerous puppy toys and one puppy bed for her crate. After she tore apart the first bed, we splurged and bought her a supposedly indestructible Kong bed. She loved it, until yesterday, when she chewed threw the end of it (there are three sections to the bed -- a long square and two encased pillows on the ends) and tore out all the stuffing.
Needless to say, we weren't happy. She knew she did something bad, too, and sulked, but didn't quite apologize to Lori like I thought she would. To non-dog owners, dogs will apologize when they know they did something bad. Lori sewed up the empty end, and after debating whether we should just let her sleep in the empty crate, we put the bed back in.
Tonight, when Michael left his dinner in too accessible a place for a puppy, Popcorn ate the food. That earned a trip to the crate. And what does she do while she's there? Attack the side she tore up before. There's nothing left for her to pull out of the pillow, but she went at it again. We've tried the bitter apple spray, which she seems to ignore. She's back on her bed tonight, but I'm wondering if we need to let her go a few days sleeping on the hard crate floor. Maybe then she'll figure out not to destroy the things that are meant for her comfort.
Maggie, our cat, got the last laugh. After putting Popcorn in her crate sans bed after we noticed her trying to chew it again, the bed was outside her crate, and Maggie made herself cozy on it, right in front of the dog. Maggie has been kind of a brat lately too, purposely knocking down anything up high just because she can. I think the two animals are conspiring against us.
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