Dog, days 8-13

[serenissima]

"Mungo, what is best in life?"
Good: Chewing on his rawhide bone.
Better: Getting petted. A roll in the warm grass on a sunny afternoon.
Bliss: Getting petted while lying in the warm grass, chewing on rawhide. (Actually, I think he would stop chewing if I started petting him.)

Our new family member seems to be settling in fairly well. We haven't had a house training accident since Sunday. We bought him a furry squeak toy, and after initial puzzlement, he seems to have accepted it as something else he may chew on. He's not impressed with the squeaker, though.

Crate training hasn't turned out the way we had in mind. I think it was Monday that we put him in the fabric crate while we went out to get groceries. We were gone around half an hour. When we returned, the crate was two feet away from the wall, and Mungo greeted us excitedly at the door with a huge grin on his face. Later that day, we shut him in the hall bathroom and ran out to purchase a baby gate. We hurried back, but he had already peed in there. He was clearly very upset and ran out as soon as we opened the bathroom door.

Tuesday morning was the moment of truth: he would be alone in the house for hours, and we didn't want to risk leaving him loose. We set up the baby gate in the bathroom doorway, and aristeros picked him up and put him in there. After a few minutes, he jumped out. I lured him back into the bathroom with pieces of chicken and shut the door on him, but I noticed he was tearing off fragments from the bottom edge of the door with his claws. Apparently our interior doors are made of cardboard. Not wanting to have to pay housing management for a door and already late for class, I brought him out of the bathroom, put him in his fabric crate, and hoped for the best. Of course, he had escaped by the time aristeros got home for lunch.

Since then, we've been leaving Mungo unconfined when we go out, even for as much as three hours. The worst that has happened is that he knocked over the wastebasket and dragged the blanket in which we like to curl up from the sofa to the middle of the floor. He hasn't destroyed anything or eaten anything he wasn't supposed to. We just had a new, wire crate delivered, and we plan to accustom him to that, but I don't know if we really need it. I guess the fabric crate might be useful for bringing him on trips, just to make him more comfortable in a hotel room or stabilize him inside the car. Obviously it's no good for keeping him penned.

Comments

[odiedragon.livejournal.com]

The only time I've used a fabric crate, I had zero luck with it. It wasn't with Bongo though... he has a regular plastic crate. We only put him in there at night. During the day he has the run of the house. He used to have infrequent accidents, but he hasn't for months now (now, watch it happen because I mentioned it) I think you'll be fine :)

[daisho.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear he seems to be settling in! Such minimal damage the first time he was left alone for a long period hopefully bodes well for the future, too.

[breimh.livejournal.com]

When the squeaker goes off, watch for ear twitching. We had a dog who had such acute hearing that the squeaking noise hurt his ears.