Lee's destruction has really, really reduced. However, we have noticed a pattern of when it is going to occur.
A typical morning in our house looks like:
Lady getting up, feeding everyone, reading the paper as she drinks her tea and has breakfast, getting dressed, taking Lee for her walk, and goest to work. (sometime in that, Man gets up and goes to work too).
So if for some reason Lady and Man are to go out (to work or other) before Lee has had her walk, she will destroy something.
2 weekends ago she got the basket that has been by the door for at least 9 months and ate the finger out of my glove when we went out for 45 minutes to get groceries on a morning that was too cold for her walk.
Yesterday, she took the phone book off the shelf and ripped it up when her people didn't take her out before they left because it was a dog walker morning (FYI, she would have been alone for probably about an hour before her beloved Stephanie came to play with her).
Because of this pattern, I got to get up before 5 this morning. I have a couple morning meetings but will be home around lunch (and am working from home all afternoon). If she wasn't destructo-dog, I would have scheduled our walk for when I get home (and it is light and probably warmer). However, if I do that she will destroy something, so here we are up at an ungodly hour. The only good thing is I could sneak a nap this afternoon if I wanted (oh the benefits of working from home!).
We had the same problem with Rupert not too long ago. It was a cold week with not much walk time (I usually walk him before and after work) and one morning out of no where he decided to eat a cabinet door in the kitchen. We were shocked since we never had this problem before. After wondering what triggered this... we realized that it must be the walking. Ever since he went back to his normal walking schedule he hasn't tried to eat another cabinet!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what those walks do! There's such a huge difference in Wookie's barking if he doesn't get his morning walk.
ReplyDeleteShe did still get her leash yesterday and chew through it, but it was less destruction.
ReplyDeleteI wish crate training worked for her, but it doesn't sigh!