Terrible twos
Our little guy is growing up right before our eyes.
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Seriously, Ketchum is almost a full grown dog these days.
As he has gotten older, we have allowed him more freedoms.
Him and I had the "with great freedom comes great responsibility" talk, and I think we reached an understanding (or at least I thought we did).
When we brought him home, we had two different "doggy dens" for him (also known as crates). In the dining room, we had a large plastic crate for when he was home during the daytime and we were at work.
In our bedroom we had a fabric travel crate that he slept in every night.
Although he didn't seem to mind them, he loved being out roaming around much more than being trapped in the small space.
Slowly, we gave him the option to come and go from his crate as he pleased when we were gone. Usually, it would only be an hour or so that he was able to roam the house while we ran to the store or out to dinner.
He was a champ.
No accidents in the house, nothing chewed up; all in all he was fantastic.
Soon, he was the king of the castle with no boundaries at all (including sleeping on our bed). He could be in any room and we could trust him to not do anything naughty or have an accident inside the house.
This continued for months.
Then recently he hit a rough patch. A REALLY rough patch.
Our cute little pup has become a terror... a chewing terror that is.
He recently got into chewing things that he is not supposed to, and he has gone wild.
We never leave him for more than a few hours alone, but as soon as we are gone, he finds something to tear apart.
Recently, when we were out of town and my sister was staying with him, he chewed up her running shorts.
I hope those were delicious....
We've tried giving him large bones and antlers that take hours to chew, but he abandons those after 30 minutes in search of something better....like baby socks.
So we have now started closing all the doors (Ketchum figured out how to open doors that aren't fully closed) and moving anything remotely "chewable" to "high ground."
We came home last night to this...
Apparently, Ketchum likes to chew Hunter's Christmas presents...or at least the packaging.
So now, Ketchum has lost all access to the living/dining room and the bedrooms. He still has plenty of space to roam, but without access to small chewable items.
Just when we thought we were safe, we found a bowl of chocolates cleared out....I wonder who got into those?
Luckily, the chocolate doesn't seem to phase him. Chris has taken to calling him "garbage gut."
What Ketchum has going for him is that sweet face and "I'm sorry eyes," which we fall for every time.
So, for the foreseeable future, we are going to be extra diligent on keeping chewable items out of his reach and I'm going to be praying every night that he grows out of this phase sooner rather than later.
Don't worry, he's still sleeping on our bed and enjoying every luxury in life...except chewing Christmas presents of course.
Please tell me that your dog grew out of this, or that there is a magic way to get him to stop chewing..... I'll do anything!
.JPG)
As he has gotten older, we have allowed him more freedoms.
Him and I had the "with great freedom comes great responsibility" talk, and I think we reached an understanding (or at least I thought we did).
When we brought him home, we had two different "doggy dens" for him (also known as crates). In the dining room, we had a large plastic crate for when he was home during the daytime and we were at work.
In our bedroom we had a fabric travel crate that he slept in every night.
Although he didn't seem to mind them, he loved being out roaming around much more than being trapped in the small space.
Slowly, we gave him the option to come and go from his crate as he pleased when we were gone. Usually, it would only be an hour or so that he was able to roam the house while we ran to the store or out to dinner.
He was a champ.
No accidents in the house, nothing chewed up; all in all he was fantastic.
Soon, he was the king of the castle with no boundaries at all (including sleeping on our bed). He could be in any room and we could trust him to not do anything naughty or have an accident inside the house.
This continued for months.
Then recently he hit a rough patch. A REALLY rough patch.
Our cute little pup has become a terror... a chewing terror that is.
He recently got into chewing things that he is not supposed to, and he has gone wild.
We never leave him for more than a few hours alone, but as soon as we are gone, he finds something to tear apart.
Recently, when we were out of town and my sister was staying with him, he chewed up her running shorts.
I hope those were delicious....
We've tried giving him large bones and antlers that take hours to chew, but he abandons those after 30 minutes in search of something better....like baby socks.
So we have now started closing all the doors (Ketchum figured out how to open doors that aren't fully closed) and moving anything remotely "chewable" to "high ground."
We came home last night to this...
So now, Ketchum has lost all access to the living/dining room and the bedrooms. He still has plenty of space to roam, but without access to small chewable items.
Just when we thought we were safe, we found a bowl of chocolates cleared out....I wonder who got into those?
Luckily, the chocolate doesn't seem to phase him. Chris has taken to calling him "garbage gut."
What Ketchum has going for him is that sweet face and "I'm sorry eyes," which we fall for every time.
So, for the foreseeable future, we are going to be extra diligent on keeping chewable items out of his reach and I'm going to be praying every night that he grows out of this phase sooner rather than later.
Don't worry, he's still sleeping on our bed and enjoying every luxury in life...except chewing Christmas presents of course.
Please tell me that your dog grew out of this, or that there is a magic way to get him to stop chewing..... I'll do anything!
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