My New Dog Ate...

[Peweh]

I thought my new dog was a handful. On the news tonight in Boston was a St. Bernard puppy who ate a 13 inch serrated knife! Dog was acting strange so her owner took her to the vet and upon X-Ray, this 13 inch serrated knife showed up! The vet made his techs re-do the X-Rays because he couldn't believe his eyes. Surgery has been done and the dog is suffering no ill effects.

Please don't take me as an irresponsible pet owner, but I've got a 10 month old Plott Hound I rescued from a pound in Maine and thought I'd share some of the things she's gotten into. Needless to say we have become VERY vigilant about puppy-proofing the house. AND making sure we have a constant supply of rawhide/Kongs/hoofs/soy pig ears. At first we tended to forget what a puppy she was because she is so large and our last dog was so good!

2 NetFlix DVDs - imagine explaining THAT one to Customer Service
A corner of my friend's wedding card sealed with check in it - no time to replace before reception! Taped it up with note "Izzy sends her love!"
Corners of 3 ottomans - 2 were homemade jobs but one was expensive
Small piece of our comforter mistaken for extension of the rawhide she was chewing - the wedding quilt Mom's making me will definitely be "display only" for at least 5 years!

[Canice]

Wow, and I was surprised when my sister's little Pomeranian ate a nail! (How'd she do that anyways?)

[schuh]

Puppies are amazingly fast in that regard. I've been able to monitor my new puppy for the past two weeks, and I'm especially diligent because he's a small breed. But it doesn't take long for them to get into the weirdest stuff!

My late great dog was a lab mix and she was TERRIBLE. She got up on the table and ate (in separate incidents) a turkey carcass, an uncooked pizza, an ear of corn (cob and all), my son's 1st birthday cake -- and that's the real food. She also ate a tube of Desitin. We had to get a Diaper Genie because she'd get into the diaper pail.

[oceanjasper]

Bringing back fond memories of my black lab...

Remote control
Gear shift in my car
An entire flat of date bars
6-pack of beer left on the floor beside the entrance (didn't spill a drop)
All but the frozen core of a roast thawing on the counter (the first clue was the string hanging out of his mouth when he met us at the door)
Lots of dirty plastic containers he pulled out of the sink
Full garbage bags, preferably ones with coffee grounds in them
Underwear

I can't wait to get another one someday.

[Peweh]

Bringing back fond memories of my black lab...

Underwear

Oh, yeah, I forgot... underwear! Punctuated by BIL who was staying here this summer: "Izzy ate one of your bras." HOW EMBARASSING!!!

Keep these posts coming. DH is at his wit's end and I just remind him the Late Great Dog he fell in love with when he met me ate his own share of stupid stuff when he was a puppy. A whole roll of stamps when I was in college, and this was before self-stick so I taped my stamps on everything and the Post Office returned it all because they thought I was re-using stamps!

[DoreenW.]

five pound box of See's candy....

[Peggy C.]

Peweh I'd love to see a picture of your Plott. I pet sit and dog walk one. Maybe it's a plott thing, but she has eaten the claw feet off of a formal dining table, numerous pillows, an opossom...and some other things I can't recall right now.

[gertdog]

Gertie didn't get into *too* much trouble as a puppy, but she still had a few noteworthy incidents.

She chewed right through a chair leg.

Chewed the drawstring out of of a brand-new coat.

Chewed the windowsill off when she was angry about being left inside while we played in the snow outdoors.

When we got new shades in the living room, she methodically chewed off every single decorative wood bead at the end of the drawcords- without damaging any of the cords.

Her shining moment- she broke into a hotel sewing kit (one of those small plastic cases wrapped in plastic). When we found it, there were needles and thread scattered all over the floor. One threaded needle was missing. We couldn't find it anywhere so took her to the vet, but they couldn't find any evidence she'd eaten the needle. We never did find it.

Oh, and she ate an entire package of Greenies once- that was as an adult.

[lindrusso]

Bailey's puppy adventures -

*Ate an entire leather glove

*Chewed and ate part of a suede boot

*Ate several shoe laces. I would come home and find shoes without shoelaces - he'd get them all the way out and swallow them! It must have taken a while to even get the darned things unlaced from the shoe!

*Chewed a Nylabone in half and swallowed a piece whole.

*Swallowed a good portion of a rawhide bone whole.

*I gave him one of my shirts to keep him company during the day - big mistake. Came home to find half the shirt missing.

Needless to say, Bailey does not have any soft, plush toys. He like to pick at them, eventually tearing off any and all apendages, then moving on to picking and tearing at the seams until he gets it open and starts gutting it completely.

He also only has the hardest Nylabone available. No rawhide or edible Nylabones - he swallows them whole.

Fortunately, he doesn't seem to have an appetite for shoelaces any longer.....

Ahhhhh....those were the days.......

[rburganmckinley]

One dog we had when I was growing up enjoyed (dirty only) towels, jeans and underwear.

Another would get mad when we'd leave her. She shredded all three cusions on the couch, chewed the bottom 6-12 inches off a door, and entire package of toilet paper. She pretty much chewed everything in site. We ended up having to get rid of her.

The one I have now I will occasionally find some paper he's gotten ahold of (like maybe once every year or two).

Oh yeah, and I forgot the dog who like to chew black leather shoes. Not brown. Just black.

[lisalee]

Penny is a mixed breed dog who I rescued after she followed some of my students to school. While her chewing has slowed down a lot here's her list:

She loves fabric and being able to pull the stuffing out of anything: she ate the dog bed I had for Wednesday and took it out through the doggy door to spread the foam all over the yard.

She has ripped up a piece of carpeting right at the door of my bedroom and thoughtfully took out the padding too. She can pull back a piece of carpeting both in the hallway and my bedroom and so takes out the padding.

She chewed down the side of a bed that I had for less than a week as well as put holes in a couple of corners. And the bitter apple stuff that is suppose to keep them from chewing? Yeah that made her chew even more, she liked the flavor of it. I had sprayed one corner of the bed really well thinking that would help, and that's the corner she really attacked.

She's eaten two comforters, a bed skirt and ripped apart 4 sets of sheets.

In the living room, she chewed on the couch skirt and made a hole in the cushion so she could get to the stuffing. She's chewed holes in two slipcovers (one expensive, one not)

That was all as she was adjusting to the household. As I've said she has slowed down considerably. Yesterday she was mad that I didn't take her for a walk and shredded some newspaper.

Now she's not allowed in the bedroom when no one is home, and if I am going to be away for a while, I put her outside. She hates that right now but its because she and I have been home together for going on 4 weeks, and because we lost Wednesday the weekend I got home from the hospital, so she's not quite sure about being alone.

Gotta say I love her though!
Lisa

[Beth]

I think my boys need to read this before we get a dog.

[Laura]

My golden wasn't so much a chewer, but a digger. My lab... wow.

4 seat cushions on the dining room chairs, a leather jacket, and the carpeting (berber) near the entryway come to mind.

[lindrusso]

I think my boys need to read this before we get a dog.

Well, if you're looking for a convenient excuse.....

But Bailey DID outgrow it. I still won't let him have the plush toys or anyof the chew toys that he could possibly get large chunks off to swallow whole, but shoes are once again safe in our house.

Now he just pulls hairs out of his would-be thick, beautiful, feathery tail.

[Grace]

I think my boys need to read this before we get a dog.

I kept my dogs kennelled whenever they were unsupervised until they grew out of the puppy chewing/destructive stages. No problems with eating stuff here, and I have two labs.

I honestly don't care about any of my stuff - it can all be replaced. I am more worried about my dogs getting sick or dying because of ingesting any of that stuff. That was my biggest fear.

[colleency]

Compared to other people's experiences, my schnauzer wasn't so bad. She once ate a full tray of raw chocolate chip cookie dough waiting to go in the oven. We had to have her stomach pumped.

As for chewing, she really seemed to only chew when she was mad...usually at my mom. She once chewed up my mom's wallet, including all her credit cards. Then she dragged the chewed bits into the main archway in the house and went to the bathroom on top of it.

I had to take her and leave the house for the rest of the day, because I was pretty sure my mom was going to kill us both.

[doggerham]

Valentine was pretty much out of the puppy chewing stage when I came on the scene. But several times she did indicate her jealousy of the "new woman" by taking one of my shoes outside and guarding it. No chewing though.

I had a cat who liked nothing better than to take just-removed pantyhose and carry it around the house.

[jellyben]

We are currently trying to remove gum from around Salsa's mouth. She found a wad on the deck. She is only 14 weeks and still closely supervised, so that is the worse that she has gotten into.

Our shelties were the worst:
My DS's second birthday cake. Ate the entire blue teddy bear cake!
Birth control pills. Luckily they just chewed up the package.
The telephone cord. Went to pick up the extension and discovered it had been severed.
My parent's security alarm. They chewed through the wall and set it off. The cops came, dogs freaked out, one got away, cops issued APB, CHarlie returned in the back of a squad car. They did this repeatedly until the cops left my parents a note saying they weren't going to come to their house again!

[Mpenny1001]

Our first rescue dog didn't usually get into too much, but he did have one bad day where he ate an entire Toblerone bar (foil and all!), about 2 cups of uncooked white rice, and several wooden spoons. He was fine, but just trust me when I tell you that you don't want to be standing anywhere near a dog when the uncooked white rice comes out the back end. Yikes! Poor puppy had a very sore tummy and tushy for a couple of days.

[Peweh]

Peggy - Do you have any quick tips on inserting a pic? I've never had much luck with that here before on this Board

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories! It reminds me there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Grace, I agree with you about kenneling when unsupervised and pets potentially getting sick is a bigger worry than 'things'. I think part of my problem is I work at home so I consider her 'supervised' when really she's got free run of the house while I'm holed up in the office on conference calls. We're working on it, in baby steps!

[carolh]

My Bailey sounds like the previous Bailey; however, no one has told her she's 10 years old and should have grown out of this. The worst is mostly over. Now the golden mostly retrieves instead of destroys. She stills chews a magazine or newspaper now and then to let me know she's not happy her dinner is late. Bailey has a long list of destruction:
corner of a China cabinet
corner of window sill (bored, so chew on the sill)
the actual wall next to the window sill, dent in the drywall
carpet, pulls at threads in the carpet until they're pulled out and you have a bare spot
lamp cords, plugged in!
one pair of prescription glasses
a few remote controls, including batteries
underwear, towels, swimsuit
leather shoe, all but the sole
trash
turkey chop disappeared from counter while lighting the grill
crab dip from counter while showing guests out
stick of butter
towels off of kitchen or bathroom counter
buttons off duvet covers
corner of the Christmas tree stand (she was 9 yrs old)
found pound of coffee beans under Christmas tree and ate the whole thing (wasn't her best idea)
equal destruction to her own toys, loves to rip hair and stuffing out

I'm probably forgetting some of the best. Yes, I've actually thought about getting another. Can it be worse?

[Peggy C.]

Peggy - Do you have any quick tips on inserting a pic? I've never had much luck with that here before on this Board

!

I'm sorry I don't have any tips. I never had much luck either and it's been so long since I tried I don't even remember where to begin.

[oceanjasper]

I was telling a friend about this thread and he asked "Didn't he eat a box of chocolates or something once too?" Oh my gosh, how could I forget??

I usually get a large cardboard box filled with gifts from Sweden every Christmas and one year it was left sitting on the floor, completely sealed. Well, my lab sniffed out something good inside and literally shredded the cardboard box to get at and devour three boxes of chocolates inside. Nothing else, just the chocolate. Believe it or not, he wasn't sick at all.

We should have named him Hoover. It would have suited him perfectly!

[Varaile]

WOW!

I thought it was bad when my lab puppy (now 6) ate a pound of Jelly Belly's that I had thought I had tucked so carefully under the truck seat! (Can you say techicolor barf? ) I see now she doesn't hold a stick to some of your puppies!!!

I am also fortunate that my English Setter had/has no interest in chewing on things. Downside is plaque buildup on his teeth.

rburganmckinley wrote: One dog we had when I was growing up enjoyed (dirty only) towels, jeans and underwear.

Ahh yes...my lab loves my socks (she will go out of her way to find where I left them) and my setter ate my underwear once...