This is our baby, although she was Wendell's baby before she was "ours". Not only was she Wendell's, but Wendell was hers. She repeatedly tried to make this clear to me on numerous occassions. And every now and then she still does. She tries to get in between us on the bed, she barks at me when we play fight (even though I may be the one in defense mode), she jumps and claws at us when we kiss, if we hug she stands between us at our feet. If we pay more attention to each other than we do to her, she'll whine, and if we ignore her long enough she'll bark at us to let us know she's been neglected long enough. This behavior is usually the most prominent when we come home after she's been left alone all day.
Feeling guilty prompted us to get Molly a playmate, especially now that we have our own home. We didn't have to look long before we were given Nancy:
We fell in love instantly, she was such a sweetheart. It took Molly a day or two to take to her, but once she did they played constantly. It was a perfect match all around, or so we thought....
It didn't take long for us to discover Nancy was a chewer. You would think that a dog of her small size wouldn't be able to do much damage. WRONG!
In about a weeks time she has managed to maime or destroy the following:
My Puma overnight (these are not cheap), a backpack, a pack of sharpies, socks, house shoes, surround sound speaker wires, 3 funnels, a vinyl record (a collectors item limited to 300 copies no less), one of Wendell's prized action figures, a blanket, a dog bed, and some miscellaneous plastic items we couldn't identify. She even chewed on the vinyl siding on our garage!
The other day we came home and she had tried pulling our desk chair through the doggy door! Of course she chewed the lower portion of it, as well as the flap on the doggy door.
And on top of all of this, this dog that came from an outdoor environment has taken to using our house as her personal restroom. Of course all of this has been more than frustrating. We have tried all that we could think of with no results. To make matters worse we're gone 10 hours a day and don't have the time to teach her how things work here at 'Casita Hess'.
Sadly, all these means that she has to go. We feel horrible taking away Molly's playmate. And I've grown a little attached to her as it was nice having a dog that I could call mine, she warmed up to me moreso than Wendell.
But she gets to go live on a farm, a place she's use to being. So, at least she'll get her roaming area where she can chew on whatever the outdoors have to offer. We lose a buddy, but get to keep our home.
*sigh*
4 comments:
Adorable doggies!! That is sad that you had to give her away...I have a Beagle too, and she is nothing less than my child!
sorry you had to give nancy away....lots of dogs are chewers, but I think beagles are notorious in that department. crating a dog when one is away is usually a good solution and dogs don't mind being crated as it's like a little cave.
matilda the dog next door did a real number on lin's leather ottoman while she was at work - soon after that is when lin did crate training. but matilda now has gotten out of the habit of chewing and doesn't need to be crated routinely any more...although she does volunteer to go in and just sleep. my daughter's dog was/is a chewer and still is crated when em's at work. dixie loves her crate...which at first I thought was weird, but when I read up on it - it makes sense.
dogs are pack animals so it's not surprising that molly adjusted quickly - by the way molly is a beautiful dog!
good luck if you get another playmate... good to establish who is the alpha dog in the family from the get go (that would be you and wendell!)
have fun!
I'm a unintentionally late on the replies.
It broke my heart to send her back, she was awesome other than the chewing. We think a lot of it had to do with the fact that she went from a huge farm to a house with a small backyard. But she is back on a farm and doing great, we just miss her.
oh we had to do that too, with Pork Chop. She did not chew, but she bit and snapped. Snapping terrier + small kids = not so much. We tried everything- obedience school, personal trainers, water bottles, everything. Then it got to the point where the kids would hide from the dog, cowering in the play room, and run whenever she would come near her. So then they couldn't even be in the same room ever. One day, she bit Oliver in the face and latched on. Next morning, she had a new home. So sad.
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