April 02, 2007

When Mutts Go Bad

My dog has gone round the bend.

hoowork3.jpg

Since it was raining yesterday, I decided to leave Hoocher in the mudroom when we all left for the afternoon. Whenever we leave him indoors for an extended period of time, he stays in the mudroom. Otherwise, he likes to stretch out on the couch the minute the door shuts behind us. With allergy issues, we try to discourage the habit and so he gets run of a large room with food, water, and a dog bed which is currently in better shape than my own mattress. He suffers not.

For reasons unknown, this past week he has taken a strong dislike to being left in the mudroom. I've seen a few scratch marks on the door, but yesterday something in his simple little skull snapped. See exhibit A above. We got home to an amazing mess. It looked like someone had a brawl in a woodshop. He gnawed clear down to the glass panes. See the white plastic thing mounted on the wall in the background? It was the Dust Buster re-charger. He chewed through the cord. Upset his dog dish. The rug was shredded.

I don't know what has come over him or why it started out of the blue when being confined to the mudroom has been a long-standing practice.

My guess is that he's getting lonelier in his old age. He just plain misses us. And since we can't stay home merely to placate him...I'm thinking he needs a companion.

Our neighbor's dog has 7-week old yellow lab pups.

While The VP is protesting vehemently against getting another dog...seems to me it would be foolish to ignore this obvious case of divine intervention.

Posted by Cathy at April 2, 2007 12:53 PM
Comments

I had a dog when I lived in Monticello, that as he got older (he was about 10) developed what the vet figured was a severe case of seperation anxiety. He would make himself sick every time i even went to work. I had to start leaving him in the garage when I was gone because he was tearing up the house. One day we went to dinner and he was in the garage, we had a pretty good thunderstorm while we were gone. He freaked out, he tore the screen door off the hinges from the garage into the house, he took the bottom panel of sheet metal out of the frame and cut himself to ribbons. We got home, opened the garage door and it looked like someone had gutted a deer in the garage. Blood everywhere. We tried everything to help, even went to the extent of getting what I called Doggie Downers but he kept getting worse. He ended up dying not too long after the screen door incident. I think he was just getting old and passed away from natural causes but that last year was pretty rough on both me and the dog.

Oh, and I'll have to send you a picture that pretty much describes how much of a U of M hockey fan I am. You'll love it.

Posted by: Chris H at April 2, 2007 03:33 PM

Don't let him get into the power tools.

Posted by: Chris Muir at April 3, 2007 12:02 PM

Cows with guns, chickens with choppers, dogs with dust busters . . .

Where will the madness end?

Posted by: aelfheld at April 3, 2007 12:57 PM

Hopefully, he won't figure out how to use a wood chipper.

Posted by: Chris H at April 3, 2007 03:51 PM

Looks like it is time for an airline kennel.

Posted by: davep at April 3, 2007 04:52 PM

I sympathize you. My dog(I have the rotveyler) some months ago eat the gnawed my fishing-rod. Now I go fishing only with beer:)))

Posted by: John Robinson at April 4, 2007 03:54 AM

Very hungry dogs :)

Posted by: Andrey at April 16, 2007 05:43 AM