Posted by Karen | Posted in dog training, pet adoption | Posted on 13-07-2010
Tags: puppy care
At 18 months, Rio is still a “puppy”, so his urge to chew is strong. I give him rawhide bones, which he loves, but he chews on them for a while and then buries them. (Burying bones is another strong urge!) I gave him a hard plastic bone to satisfy his chewing urge in the house, and so far he has not bothered our assorted items left lying around. I still am not used to thinking about keeping things out of his reach. Taking off my shoes and leaving them right where I removed them is a bad habit that I need to break. Surprisingly, Rio has not even thought about bothering them.
However, outside…now that’s a different story. Because he buries what I give him to chew on, he explores his world for other possibilities. He has punctured the hose. He has dumped out plants and chewed up the pots. He got his brush off of the barbecue and chewed on the handle. He even chewed a hole in the hard plastic swimming pool that I used to give him a bath. (That was probably his way of letting me know how much he hated that bath…though I had a good clue before that by the way I had to drag him and shove him into the shallow pool of about 4 inches of water.)
He also likes to chew on the limbs trimmed from our plum tree. He finds them on the trash pile and drags them to the middle of the yard and gnaws on them for hours. Unfortunately that translated into his liking wooden objects like the legs of the furniture in the house! Remember, I bought him the hard plastic bone? That was why.
But by far, his very favorite outside chew-toy is his 5 gallon, yellow bucket. I say HIS bucket, because he found it in the yard and decided it was his and we don’t have the heart to tell him differently. Besides, it keeps him from destroying other things. It is a very hard plastic bucket with a metal handle. It has survived quite a bit of munching already. He carries it all over the yard and plays with it, throwing it around and chasing after it. He also lies in the grass and munches on it. The way his eyes kind of roll back in his head, you’d think he was eating a nice prime steak!
He really does look silly carrying that bucket all around, but he doesn’t really care. It makes for lots of enjoyment for him. Needless to say, Rio and his yellow bucket provide Jay and me with our own private comedy central right in our own backyard.
See what Rio is like with other people on the next post Rio the Watch Dog?
This takes me back to when Arianne was younger. Her urge to chew was unbelievable sometimes. Unforntunatl,y she did chew anything her nose led her to. She’s chewed shoes, purses, stuffed animals (that didn’t belong to her), cords, you name it. I would often laugh at the site of her running frantically through the house with an object in her mouth, dodging furniture to escape out the kitchen doggy door, with the kids chasing and yelling “give it back”. We’ve even caught her chewing rocks, and yes, that look on her face when she chews. The look of complete satisfaction and total relaxation, with eyes rolled back. Its the silliest thing. We finally got her a “Kong” chew toy. We fill it with peanut butter, she loves it. They last awhile too.
Good suggestion, Stef. I will look for a Kong chew the next time I am at the pet store.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with Rio. I love your “Dog Blog.”
I have a little white Pekingenese (Mookie) that my ex-wife and I rescued that is around 11 now. I kept my little boy (My first small dog). My girlfriend has a dog almost the same as Rio, her name is Kona, just a little darker. Kona is a rescued Staffordshire Terrier. Same temperment it seems as Rio. Great with my little fur ball. They are great friends now, both inside dogs even catch them sleeping together sometimes. Both know each others limits, food, toys, etc. Never once have I thought Knoa would hurt Mookie out of anger, playing, that is different. Kona gets excited and chases Mookie. When Mookie stops so does Kona. Pits have been misunderstood for a long time. They are great dogs and very loving. If everyone would give them a chance like you did the misunderstanding would stop.