Monday, March 23, 2009

Consistency

When Nala was a pup, she had a little dog bed with a removable pillow. As she outgrew the bed, the pillow became a toy. I figured it couldn't hurt to let her play with it, ignoring the little voice in my head that remembered previous puppies and their "can't hurt to chew on that" toys. (One puppy chewed a hose; once it was ruined, we figured he could have it since we couldn't use it anyway. Guess how many more hoses we went through in the next several months?) Bad idea.

A few months ago, Nala had torn apart the pillow, leaving stuffing all over the living room. I was torn on whether or not to replace it, thinking that giving her one could give her a soft toy that was all hers, but at the same time could make her think that all soft things are chews. We stuck with hard toys and bones.

Then my boyfriend stayed home sick one day, and out of guilt for not being able to take her out, gave her an old stuffed animal he was going to throw out.

She was happy.

Then came the next time I took her home to my parents' place. The next morning, by the time I got downstairs to take a shower before work, I was met with a similar scene. This time, the victim was what my mom calls her $100 bear (a thank-you token from a charity event).

Mom was not happy.

Then it was the extra thick, super soft, padded tongue on my hiking boots.



Now I'm not happy, and I have no one to blame but myself.

She was allowed to chew on a stuffed pillow as a pup; she was allowed to chew on the stuffed animal that was headed for the trash anyway. Understandably, she thought soft things like my mom's charity souvenir and my boots were ok for chewing. What would make her think they were off-limits? Certainly we didn't teach that...

Consistency is key. I should have listened to that little voice the first time she chewed on the bed, the one that remembered the ghost of puppies past. We're still having a hard time with it, but we're sticking to it. She'll get it.

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