The oldest excuse in the book, right? "The dog ate my homework" is a classic excuse for a missing homework the next day at school. The interesting part is that it's entirely plausible.
The manual paper shredder
Aschiuta loves to shred paper. Tissues, toilet paper, random pieces of paper lying around are doomed to be torn to pieces by this little paper shredder. One day, when we came home from an evening out, we saw that she had also torn pages off a book in the bookcase. The book was about Mathematics, so I totally agree with her choice.
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| "This is my paper. Get your own!" |
The terminator doggie
Recently, I have been wondering what to do about her chewing habits, especially when she's home alone. She has chewed parts of the bed and couch and also the table legs. If there are any objects that look interesting, especially made of plastic or rubber, she would chew them. Even the cables have felt the sting of her fangs, as you can read in my post Spaghetti? Yes, please, with meatballs!
We have several chew toys for her, including a nice new one from Scorp's mom, but she barely looks at them. Instead of letting her chew on the furniture and other things, I had to give her a more interesting alternative. And, cheap, since we're both kind of out of jobs.
I actually had the idea of making her stuffed toys out of old rags and cotton, but Scorp argued I shouldn't use cotton, so I was still wondering what else to do.
Confetti is the way to go!
Somehow, she gave us the answer herself. While we were out one day, she found a couple of old notepads and tore the papers out. We were happy to know she didn't even bother destroying anything else.
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| Working on that confetti. |
Since then, we've been out three times and every time, I would leave some pieces of paper at the edge of the table, in a handy position. When we came home, the papers would be shredded and the doggie happy.
I'm glad we have a safer alternative for her chewing madness, at least for a while.
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| Leaving the scene of the crime. |
Asch is beginning to make Georgia sound like an angel!:p You are very understanding, I have to say. And inventive. Paper, plastic, etc...all seem MUCH better than "spaghetti" [so long as she doesn't swallow them.] Why NOT cotton though?
ReplyDeleteWhen Georgia was going through her made bite everything phase, I tried using chilli oil spray [on plants and outdoor water features, hose, etc] and a bitter lime ointment on indoor stuff. They apparently work on some dogs, but unfortunately, not on Ms Pea!
Anyway, at least you now have a solution. Hope she grows out of it soon though. Can be so expensive, not to mention sad, to lose things :)
Hmm, your question made me wonder about cotton. Apparently, feeding a dog cottonwool balls can help safely eliminate bone shards and other sharp objects. Here's some more info about this.
ReplyDeleteWe also tried bad smelling things when potty training, but I guess some dogs just don't mind.
Thanks, she's actually becoming a better-behaved dog, now that she knows we'll still come back to her.
Maybe Aschiuta can get a job as a professional paper shredder and make some extra cash for treats?!? I think it could be possible...
ReplyDeleteCairn cuddles, Oz
When I was kid, my pup used to chew the corners off all of my paperbacks!
ReplyDeleteI believe the dog is chewing stuff, because it doesn't like to stay alone.
ReplyDelete