Another sign Oscar is growing up – he’s been using this bed for over a week and hasn’t shredded it yet.
You may remember that in his early days/weeks/months he was shredding beds almost as soon as we gave them to him. He went through probably 10 beds in the first four months of his time with us. I looked at several beds that were recommended as “non-destructible” but most would replace the bed the first time he tore it up but that was it and for the price, I could buy quite a few Aldi beds.
I ended up taking a pillowcase, folding Warm & Natural batting to fit in the pillowcase, sticking the batting in the pillowcase and sewing the end shut. He loved it! There were a few times I caught him chewing on a corner but I would tell him NO and use the bitter apple spray and he never once chewed a hole in it. He’s probably been using it at least four months.
Oscar goes to the gate and rattles it . . ever so quietly . . when he has to go outside. I sometimes don’t even hear him. If I have my noise canceling headphones on, I for sure don’t hear him but I only use those when Vince is downstairs watching something on TV that I don’t want to watch and Vince hears him.
The other night we were both involved in a TV show and neither of us heard Oscar! After a while, it dawned on me that he had not been out in quite a while. I got up to take him out and he had peed on that bed. It was soaked! He obviously waited as long as he could wait. Oh, I felt bad for him. It had gone all the way through about 8 layers of batting. Since I had not sewn the batting down and had had sewn multiple times over the edge where I closed it, it would not have been quick, easy or sanitary to take it apart, wash the pillowcase and stick new batting inside.
Thankfully, we have a stack of about 10 doggie beds that we bought when he was going through so many of them. I will make him another one but I’m going to is put the batting inside, sew “channels” through both layers of the pillowcase and the batting. That way I can wash it without ending up with a big felted ball.
I really felt so bad because he’s been doing so good in the house and I’m sure he tried to tell us that he needed to go out and neither of us heard him. I’m trying to pay much closer attention and that’s one of the reasons I’m thinking about trying the bell again.
montanaclarks says
I had forgotten this about the one and only dachshund I ever had–he ate shoes, the more expensive the better and always mine, never my husband’s. And never both shoes in a pair, only one shoe. He would get in the trash can under the kitchen sink–he could stick that long nose under the edge of the door and flip it open–I would come home to messy trash all over the house. I solved that problem by sticking a long handled spoon through the door handles of the cabinet. He ate our couch–we would put the cushions up against the back in the daytime so he couldn’t lay on the couch. We came home one day and he had ripped up the entire bottom of the couch where the cushions sit. In his defense we should never have had a dog at that stage in our lives–I was working as a nurse and also took a lot of call. My husband didn’t understand the concept of owning a pet so the poor dog was alone so much of the time.