Had a dalmatian once, Chief (not original name, just the original owner's appellati on for the dog). We fed him plenty of dog food, but that wasn't enough. Shoes, a baseball glove, several remotes, the bottom parts of lots of furniture, etc. The most infuriating snack was the destruction of ElderSon's hearing aids--$1800.

Ouch.

Yeah. Not so much of a dog person.

Rusty once chewed the tongues out of the Old Man's work boots.
I figure the leather was processed differently.

Benny got started on a down comforter two days ago but must have been put off by the feathers cuz he stopped at one hole. He is a stealer of socks btw so we'll have to stop blaming the wormhole in the dryer.

Best toy ever for busy dogs

http://www.itchmo.com/dog-toy-review...l-dog-toy-1534

Pearl chewed the plastic ends off a $100 pair of eyeglasses. Puppy energy... it is best met with crate training.

Thank FSM for sensible UT! Some people think crate training is restrictive and mean. I have never used it to punish my dogs I use it as their space their place to be and they will own it. I give them bones when I am home and they get them in their crate. Big sloppy cow bones are messy. I have ACDs and Belgian sheepdogs the ones that stay in the house know when I leave they go to bed. I don't want to be mad at them for destroying things.

As far as bedding I don't care if they chew up their own bed in their crate. I purposely go to GoodWill buy big comforters for $2-$5 and if they chew them I pitch them. Life is too short to be mad at a dog that never gets a mentality older than a 4-5 year old human. :)

Carrot was crate trained as a pup. But though he was ok, he never really liked it. Like a lot of beardies he seems to have a touch of claustrophobia (mum's first beardie, Brunt used to go mad in the back yard because it was high walls and carrot is freaked out if we go down the lane with high walls). And he likes to shift about during the night.

If I'd been able to get the biggest I might have kept it going, but I could only accomodate a medium crate in my house and that wasn't big enough for him to change his position and get comfy/cool as needed. When I stopped locking him in at night, I left the rate in situ in case he still wanted that as his base but he never voluntarily went in there once he didn't have to.

It was also a pain in the arse having a big crate in my little room :P

Maybe you should have slept in the crate and the dog could've had the bedroom, Dani?

hahahahahaahahaha

*ahem*

hahahahahahahahahahah

I locked him downstairs even without the crate til he was almost a year old.

But he kept making a bid for following me up at night and would go quite reluctantly to his own bed when told.

Overall, I prefer him being able to come upstairs. Though, once he discovered the comfy big bed that was that. He now stays on the bed for about half the night then buggers off for the rest of the time. Fortunately I have a double bed. I am slowly getting him to accept that he can't actually sleep at the pillow end of the bed. He always tries. I go off to have a wash and come back and he's there, head on the pillow looking blissfully comfy. He always gets moved and he always tries it again the next night :P


[eta] actually, about the half the time he's nominally 'on the bed' he's actually mostly on the windowsill (bed pushed right up to the window so he can look out without having to stand up on his back legs, and also to stop the occasional night time accidental rolling off the bed and landing on his back).

I haven't been able to read all the posts----running late for birthday lunch with son but dana, you are NOT being bitchy and I AM going to keep him----there was never any doubt, I just like to shoot off my mouth. just ask anyone; I do it all the time.

Next thing ya know Obama will ban shooting off your mouth! ;)

My bed is Diz's bed right now.

He's is a tiny cat after all (except for being fatty-kins) but since he CHEWED THROUGH THE WIRE TO HIS HEATED PAD he's wintering with me. He's a pretty good boy. Thanks to the water spray he's kinda understood that in the dark, food-lady needs sleep. He has his summer-house, next to the radiator. But that's not on through the night. He snoozes on top of it until the sun hits the windows.

Oddly enough I find he is less destructive now.
Because he's with me pretty much all night (being the only heat source) and with the 'rents all day - ditto.
Come summer he'll be back to chewing the inedible no doubt.
Or the edible. Poor Dad can't remember that leaving leftover pieces of cakes, crisps or scones on the TV table is a temptation. Nom nom nom says Diz. Wrappe din kitchen paper? Oh, even better!