We went to the mall to do some Christmas shopping since my husband has the week off from work.
We pulled into the driveway and I could see into the living room window. I didn't really think much of it, because while I did close the blinds, they tend not to stay all the way closed.
Then, as I'm walking from the car to the door, I swear I see something out of the corner of my eye. I started to joke that Emma escaped from her kennel. Then what do I see? I SAW EMMA LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW! I was like, uh, she got out!! I still don't believe my eyes, and think I'm totally hallucinating, after all, I'm starving since I've hardly eaten all day. Everyone knows hunger can make the mind play tricks on you.
So, I cautiously open the door and there was Emma all happy to see me and wagging her itty bitty tail, looking so gosh darned proud of herself too!
Here's the damage: (luckily just to the kennel and nothing else!)
Basically, she somehow pulled the back panel down.
but not before she pulled off a few pieces of metal.
So, now I don't know what to do... should we trust her not to do damage to the house if we leave her alone and not restricted? She obviously hates being confined. I know that she doesn't do anything when we're not in the same room or on the same level of the house as her. The only time she really does any damage, is when she wants attention from us. For example, if we're watching tv and she wants us to play with her, she'll start scratching the couch. Or she will grab a piece of paper or my slipper and run away with it. Usually, once she realizes we're not chasing her, she is no longer interested in the item.
But she has done enough damage that I am a little leery about leaving her home alone and not restricted. She's a very curious pup and is about 9 months old. What would you do?
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8 comments:
My Ebony is 9 months old too, however she is a lot smaller than Emma so probably isn't strong enough to be an escape artist. I'm no expert, but this is what works for us. We keep her crate in the living room so it's part of her comfort zone (unless we have company coming over then it goes straight to the spare room) and we have made it kind of homey, she has a thick pad, a rabbit feeder bottle so she can get a little water if she wants it and usually a rope toy to chew on. I also keep a blanket draped over the back wall so it feels more like a "den". If we are going to be gone a longer time I give her a Kong filled with spray cheese to keep her occupied otherwise I have a special treat that she only gets for going in her "house". I always leave the radio on as well.
It works for us, but we have had her since she was six weeks old, so we were able to start her off early getting used to it. She used to cry a lot when we left, but she did get better over time. Maybe Emma just needs some more time to get used to it, since she was older when you got her? Best of luck! --Crystal :)
I don't know if it would work for your dog but you could try keeping her to one room (like the kitchen) & putting up a baby gate to keep her in there. I don't have a dog but friends of mine did this.
my boyfriend's parents have two little Chihuahuas (which are alot smaller than Emma) but they baby gate them into the kitchen, so they aren't so confined. I don't know if Emma would be able to jump over a baby gate or not- maybe it would be possible to find a higher one??
I don't have dogs Good luck teri..
Emma behave and give your mom a break...
Well, we had problems with Zack leaping over whatever we used to confine him (this was back in the day when he was with us.)
My parents just let him roam eventually. He had a chewing problem when he was little too.
So, we just had to make sure anything we didn't want eaten was out of his reach (put all boots behind a door, shoes away, remote controls up high, etc.)
Then we would leave the TV on or a radio on (the TV gets expensive with electricity) so he would always hear someone talking and not get so lonely.
The other thing to remember is that dogs don't have the capacity to remember much past about 5 minutes apparetly. So, once you are gone, you are gone, and to them they don't know that you are gone for 15 minutes, or 5 hours. They are just crazy happy when you are back! :-)
You are just going to have to trust Emma, close all doors to all rooms you don't want her in, and call it a day. Scary, but it has to happen.
HUGS! and I can't believe she ripped those bars off!
She is a smart little puppy. I've never had a dog, so I don't have any advice.
Wolf Queen, I can't connect to your blog?
Thanks Everyone for your comment on my blog. We didn't want to keep her in the kennel, so we had a baby gate up to keep her in the kitchen. But she kept jumping over it. Then we had 2 baby gates in the kitchen one on top of the other. it worked for a while, but one day I came home from work to see that she chewed through the gate. (I posted a blog about it!) So we started putting her in the kennel, which has worked for the last month or so, but obviously she didn't like that either.
Sorry, my WolfQueen/ Crystal Wolf blog is not finished because Blogger is not my friend. It automatically defaults to German because of my ISP so for the moment til I move back stateside I blog at Livejournal. Here's the link: http://travelswithwolf.livejournal.com/
Crystal
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