Pets
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What to do? My dogs eat everything.
I have no idea what to do anymore. Since I moved here, they've eaten lightbulbs, rocks, wood, poisonous plants, curtains, carpet, spiders, prescriptions, turtles, leashes....
And it's not like they're unsupervised. I run to the bathroom, or I'm cooking in the kitchen, or I go get the mail, and they get into this stuff! I can't keep them crated all the time. They have plenty of chew toys. I don't know what to do.
Re: What to do? My dogs eat everything.
Confioning them to one area will help. Can't you baby gate the kitchen? (remove everyrthing so they cannot counter/table surf)
Have you seen my monkey?
One of my dogs can't figure out the puzzle toys, and the other one just eats the plastic and doesn't care about the treats inside.
I work a lot as a graduate student, so they don't get as much exercise as they should. I found some local ladies at the dog park who go on long walks with their dogs in the evenings, so I might join them.
Have any of you had luck with bitter spray?
Ditto PP about exercise and mental stimulation - there really is no substitute for those things. You may want to try a bunch of different puzzle toys - my guys cannot figure out the tug-a-jug but absolutely love the Kong Wobbler and this purple egg-shapped one from the same company as the tug-a-jug. If puzzle toys just aren't the right fit for your pups, try training sessions, games, tricks, etc. to get their minds working. You can work training into your walks as well (sit at each curb, look/watch me when passing people, dogs, squirrels, etc.). If you don't have time to give them physical exercise, can you hire a dog walker?
I know it's tough when you are busy - I am out of the house from 5:30 am until 8 pm (sometimes later) Monday through Friday. I have a dog walker come in the middle of the day and do a 30-45 minute walk, and then I do another 30-45 minute working/training walk when I get home. Sometimes I also feed dinner out of puzzle toys. You just have to figure out what works for you and meets your dogs' needs.
I second the dog walker and may be daycare, if that would work. Daycare has been a blessing. Our golden has been going there 2-3 days/week (5hrs to 10hrs, depends) since he was 14 weeks old. And it is a life saver early on when I was super busy and DH was getting frustrated with the puppy. I am a grad student too and I totally understand the lack of time (getting the puppy was, honestly, not a good decision for us, but we did little research about raising a puppy and I just could not give the little bugger up, no way!!).
Our dog (now 7.5 months) gets 2 20-45min walks a day, 2 daycare days/week and 1-2 days/week at the dog park where he runs/swims for 1-2 hrs. He is great when all these actually gets done. He love to put holes on our walls when he is bored! Occasionally I feed his meals on a puzzle toy, and we try and do 5-10 mins of training a day, when we can. Since we got him I am up 40 mins early (than my usual) so he gets that 20 min walk before I go to work.