Hey all,
I am new to the site but I thought I'd go ahead and post my first blog about something near and dear to my heart.
I have a 1 year old female border collie-lab mix that is highly intelligent and very independent(both typical breed traits, I am told). She had a mild chewing problem from the very beginning, which we plied with chew toys and dental bones, and occasionally a larger bone or special treat. Her only other flaw was a propensity to take off after people, or animals with no regard for safety, only a reckless abandonment to say "hello". We also took great care not to leave anything out that she would be attracted to(mainly food) and be tempted to chew or rip apart.
About a month ago, we decided to get her a playmate and took our time searching for the perfect playmate. We originally thought we would get an adopted younger male that was larger than her to cow her independent streak and temper her craziness. Mainly, we wanted a playmate to keep her occupied and our house chew-free.
After introducing our dog to 3 different rescue younger males that were larger than her and having her refuse to associate with any of them, we decided to cool our heels for awhile as it was getting a little frustrating. That very same day, I saw an ad on craigslist for a border collie purebred puppy with a decent price attached to it, and a picture that just drew me in and made me gasp at the sheer cuteness of it. I asked my husband if we could go see it, and after initial reluctance, we journeyed an hour away to the countryside of Maryland to see this adorable example of puppyhood.
When we finally found the place, I was a little aghast, as this little 10-week old puppy was sitting in a very small cage on asphalt with no blanket on a very hot day with some water and no food. The house itself was broken down and there were more than 6 dogs running around. The sweet lady who came out told us that they were moving because of the recession and that they couldn't afford to live there anymore, much less take care of the puppy. He was very dirty with matted hair infested with fleas and he looked SO sad and was shaking with only a slight wag of the tail when I picked him up. My heart broke into a million pieces on the ground. I am such a sucker for hurting things, human or not. I looked at my husband and he said, "Let's see if Loka likes him." Loka being my 1 year old mix, of course. We brought Loka out and she immediately took to the puppy and amazingly, the puppy started licking her and wagging its tail profusely. I knew he was mine then. We took him back to our house that night, with him in my lap shivering.
Even better than I had hoped, the two dogs got along perfectly. We named the puppy Toki and Loka and him took to exploring our house and wrestling 80% of the days following. I counted it a success as the chewing and ripping apart things seemed to fall to the wayside in lieu of expending energy in a constant war for dominance.
But as time goes on, the chewing and ripping apart things has come back to the forefront, with it expanding to not only food and things that smell like food to ridiculously random things, like unzipping my purse to tear up and eat my makeup, to chewing up a paintbrush and eating drywall caulk, and everything in between. Every day at least two or three things get ripped up while we are at work. And I've noticed that she has started doing it when we are there as well, with us catching her redhanded opening the cupboard and ripping up teabags or paper towels. And now the puppy is starting copy her. Apt pupil and all.
I am wondering if she is acting out because she is angry at us for the attention we give to the puppy? We try to give equal if not more attention to Loka, but understandably the puppy is going to get more as we are trying to train him.
Anyone have any thoughts, tips, ideas?
Tags: Dogspuppieschewing
