I am so mad at the dog right now!!!!

[Rikkele]

I bought the PB kids chenille braided rug 5x7 in green apple for DD's room after much agonizing and it arrived yesterday. It was beautiful and just what I wanted. I was so excited and put it in her room right away. Well, my dog just chewed the edge of it!!!! I literally turned my back for 1 minute to answer the phone and he ran in her room and damaged the rug. It's a good thing I love this dog so much otherwise he would be homeless right now!! I am soooooo mad I could spit nails!! What has your dog damaged? The list of damage this dog has inflicted is mind blowing! I love my dog but GRrrrrrr!!!!!

[almostamom]

Oh, I am so sorry this happened to you. :( You must be so frustrated. I can totally relate! Our lab ate the baseboards in our brand new house (we'd lived here 3 weeks!) I was so angry I put him in time out in the corner (he didn't dare move!!!!) He also dug a hole in the kitchen wall of my other house when he was a puppy. Nothing he's done compares to what our dog did when we were growing up. We came home from school one day to find out that our dog ate all of the stuffing out of my mother's Italian 3-piece living room set! (It looked like it snowed in the living room!)

As for your beautiful new rug, is it possible to tuck that part under a dresser, chair, or bed? You'll always know it's there, but no one else will. Yes, it IS a good thing we love our pups!


~Linda~
Baby #1 due Nov 17, 2004

[missym]

Ok, this is horrible, but our dog ate our birds. We had these cute little finches, Wren and Stumpy (missing one foot), and while we were gone one day, our dog knocked over their cage and ate them. And to think, we were worried about the cat!

Missy, mom to Gwen 03/03

[pritchettzoo]

Zoe ate my dining room table. The skirt is totally destroyed on one end.

We love her very much. Thinking about it still makes me want to sell her to the gypsies though. x(

Sorry about your rug! Can you get some matching thread and sort of sew that side together (like darning sorta)?

Anna

[amazz]

Oh that totally sucks!!!

Chloe has never really chewed up any of our stuff thankfully, but my parents had a dog that chewed all my baby dolls when I was little. I remember crying and crying so my mom put band-aids on all the holes that she couldn't sew up. Any chance that would work on your rug? ;)

Angela
EDD 10/15/04
A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on. ~Carl Sandburg

[mommy_someday]

I can't even begin to tell you the things my dogs have ruined. I try to think of it as them preparing me for having a child, but it's hard to remember that when they eat my only pair of REALLY comfortable shoes (about three hours ago! I cried.).

FWIW, in the situation with the rug, you can buy Bitter Apple spray at a pet store and spray the edges of your rug. It leaves a nasty taste in their mouths and teaches them that it's not fun to chew on that object. If the spray doesn't deter them, you can sprinkle a little cayenne pepper instead (haven't tried this myself, but have heard of others doing this). My littlest dog Cleo (a herding breed) gets very excited when she plays and often chews on things in the process. We bought a new area rug for the living room a few months ago. It hadn't been on the floor for more than five minutes when she started to destroy the corner. I used the Bitter Apple spray and she hasn't touched it since.

HTH!

ETA: Other things they have destroyed are door frames, the bench that was part of our dining room set, brand new carpet (ate a hole in the floor), books (DH collects, too!), clothing, ink pens ON TOP OF the carpet (the reason we replaced it), the lid to the kitchen trash can, all of my sheer curtains for the front windows, comforters, my terry bath robe, not to mention the destruction that comes with claws on hardwood floors (just refinished last summer) and bodily fuctions on the new downstairs carpet. I feel your frustration!

[Marisa6826]

We briefly had an English Bulldog we got from the pound. She was completely uncontrollable and ate both an Aero Bed AND a Vornado fan.

Like she couldn't have chosen something cheap??

We ultimately ended up giving her to bulldog rescue because she was so bad.

My Mother had a psycho dog (what is it they say about owners and their dogs being similar?? ;)) that would eat boxes of laundry detergent, rolls of toilet paper and shoes.

She no longer has that dog, either.

-m

[Rikkele]

OK, I feel much better knowing that it is not only my wonderfully stupid dog that destroys things. The birds and the Italian living room set takes the prize. I feel bad getting so mad about a rug but still... We have a saying that my neighbor started (she has 2 Boxers who also eat furniture) - "Can't have sh** nice!" I have the bitter apple but didn't even think to use it as he has never bothered to chew the living room rug. I will definitly get it out and spray the edges to prevent further damage. Will see if it is fixable, if not will try to stick that end under the edge of the crib. My mom says it is my own fault for letting my dogs run the house. Ok, so I am a bad parent!
The dogs have also chewed holes in the walls of our new house, chewed nearly all the door mouldings, and eaten more shoes than I can count. Fortunately they leave the bird alone - he is a big parrot and can more than defend himself!!! :)

[hez]

Hope the rug is fixable. I feel your pain. My usually very good dog chewed my favorite pair of new shoes, and my favorite slippers with big old Mickey Mouse heads that I'd had since high school :( Right now he's in a marking mood. The guest bed has been peed on and cleaned more times than I can count, and he's peed twice in the middle of Payton's room. I'm thinking there's a little bit of jealousy, but I'm hoping that's abating now that Payton's been feeding him so many Cheerios!

[houseof3boys]

Sorry that happened to your new rug. Our pooch has destroyed 4 rugs in the last 2 years. He likes to dig into everything and chenille is pretty tempting for him too. In Ryan's room, he has torn up several little spots on the PB wool rug but we just clip the tearings and pretend not to notice (yeah right).

Grrrr is right when the doggies do stuff like that.... Bad dog. :P

[Marisa6826]

I'm wondering if your credit card might cover the damage?

I was just reading last night that the premium cards (Gold/Platinum) will sometimes cover stuff under their own warranty.

Might be worth a call!

-m

[pritchettzoo]

Good idea, Marisa! :)

Anna

[rrosen]

Missy, YOU WIN! Hands down!

Poor little birds!

[momma_boo]

>Fortunately they leave the bird alone
>- he is a big parrot and can more than defend himself!!! :)

LOL! We have a blue & gold macaw that DH has to protect our lab from. Sometimes he'll get curious about the bird, but DH makes sure to keep them apart for fear that the bird will bite the dog's nose. It's funny b/c people don't realize that it's not the bird who is in danger at our house!

[steph2003]

I just wanted to say I soooo feel your pain! Our lab destroyed a nightstand we had bought at the unfinished wood store & used an antique white finish on for the guest room. She chewed the whole side apart - no way to fix it! I was soooo close to calling up lab rescue to "rescue" her from my wrath! Not to mention the whole slew of bodily fluids she left on the *new* upstairs carpet - this was during my pregnancy & our vet said she was probably acting out sensing the baby!

[Rikkele]

Wow, a blue and gold macaw! That is an awesome bird! He could definitely take an eye out! My african grey spends most of the day yelling at the dogs - "Bad dog, go home right now!" He's a fast learner! LOL :)

[rottiemom]

Oh I feel your pain! I hope that you can hide the chewed end from sight. But just an aside, your dog may be acting out for attention. There has probably been more focus on the baby than the dog in the past few months & even bad attention like a scolding counts in a dog's eyes.

Bitter apple is a great chew deterrent, as is hot pepper spray. Things like that are good because the dog self corrects, they associate chewing on the forbidden objects with an unpleasant taste as opposed to you having to catch them in the act. But try a little more rumple time with your dog, if you can, so he doesn't feel neglected. I could be completely wrong about this...but I'm sure your dog wouldn't complain about the extra good attention :).

If you have a dog that marks inside (our rescued female used to do this) clean the area with Nature's Miracle in order to neutralize any remaining enzymes. Then it's up to you...you have to break the habit. Watch the dog, tell him "no" firmly if he begins to lift his leg and take him promptly outside. It takes time & dilligence but it does work. Of course not many of us have the time & energy (not to mention focus) for this with children zooming through the house. :) If possible blocking off the area where the dog has decided to mark can help too.

The best thing that I did with my dog was train her. We had been going to obedience classes since we first adopted her & as soon as I found out I was pregnant spent special emphasis on commands like "drop", "leave it", "easy" and "gentle". This has been a Godsend from when we first brought the baby home. If William drops a toy "leave it" will prevent the toy from getting snatched up & taken away, "gentle" prevents rough sniffing, overzealous licking, head butts, etc. This is also useful as William begins to touch & pet the dog. She will sit calmly while little fingers grasp at her ears & fuzzy neck. As always there is no unsupervised interaction with our dog no matter how well trained she may be.

Another thing that I've found to be great is having a crate for our dog. It's like her own room, she goes in there when she needs alone time & can be contentedly locked in when necessary. She also has plenty of chew toys in her own toy box in order to deter her from deciding that any of our stuff looks appetizing.

That said the other night I saw her licking at her foot & realized that it wasn't her paw she was so intently slurping at. She had somehow gotten hold of one of William's teething rings, punctured it & was licking up the water that was bubbling out. This toy must have fallen out of my diaper bag & once on the floor become fair game. sigh.

Still, the fact that our dog is trained has made life with an infant much easier around our house! And lately William thinks that the dog is the funniest thing he's ever seen. He bursts into delighted chuckles whenever she trots into view.

But having a dog in the house is certainly like adding another (naughty) child into the equation. Good luck!

Nina

[candybomiller]

I have far too many bad dog stories to even begin to share, but this one is just too funny. A couple of days after we got Rufus, we saw him chewing on our cat. (She is incredibly mellow, and just sat there.) Brilliant thing I am, I decided that I didn't want Rufus chewing on the cat, so I sprayed her with the bitter apple spray, without thinking it through.

Needless to say, there were quite a few unhappy creatures in our house that night. :P