in the past few months, the dog has eaten our...
- books (she does not discriminate...so far she's eaten bits and pieces of a mystery novel, a cookbook, a couple Marian Keyes novels, the Holy Bible, a sudoku book, a baseball book, an entertainment guide with discounts and coupons, and an spss guide)
- post-it notes (some still in the shrink-wrap)
- magnets (well, it was more like gnawing them into little pieces than actually eating them)
- coasters
- tissue paper
- kleenex
- receipts
- the registration for my car
- greeting cards
- candy wrappers
- wedding favor boxes
- a presentation i made for my boss' retirement
now, you may be thinking we sound like irresponsible pet people...you're probably right. we try not to leave things on the coffee table, we put trash cans up on stools, we barricade things we don't want eaten, but she still finds things to eat. she's been known to nose her way into the geek's backpack to pull out kleenex. i keep finding half-eaten receipts on the floor. occasionally, there'll be a blast from the past like a receipt from a trip i took a few years ago or a ticket stub from a past event. yes, i realize that also means i need to to purge my stuff. for years, things on shelves were safe. but lately, even those are potential snacks.
she knows she shouldn't do it; if you catch her in the act, she runs away. if you show her evidence of her mischief, she hangs her head and goes to her bed. we're not quite sure what to do about this, so we just make sure to keep all the important documents out of her reach. we don't always succeed, as evidence by the fact that she ate my car registration.
i googled this behavior and found that it's called pica. it's sometimes a result of boredom. so we tried taking her for extra walks and getting her to chase her toys more, hoping that an active dog was a non-pica dog. at the same time, she's 14 years old so we didn't want to over-exert her. that hasn't stopped her occasional paper capers. she has a pile of toys to chew on and lick, a rawhide bone to gnaw on, but i bet she'd trade all of that for some tasty post-it notes or greeting cards.
despite all of this, it's hard to be mad at this face...
...even if it's covered with flour from going through a trash bag of pantry items being tossed out during spring cleaning.
she knows she shouldn't do it; if you catch her in the act, she runs away. if you show her evidence of her mischief, she hangs her head and goes to her bed. we're not quite sure what to do about this, so we just make sure to keep all the important documents out of her reach. we don't always succeed, as evidence by the fact that she ate my car registration.
i googled this behavior and found that it's called pica. it's sometimes a result of boredom. so we tried taking her for extra walks and getting her to chase her toys more, hoping that an active dog was a non-pica dog. at the same time, she's 14 years old so we didn't want to over-exert her. that hasn't stopped her occasional paper capers. she has a pile of toys to chew on and lick, a rawhide bone to gnaw on, but i bet she'd trade all of that for some tasty post-it notes or greeting cards.
despite all of this, it's hard to be mad at this face...
...even if it's covered with flour from going through a trash bag of pantry items being tossed out during spring cleaning.
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