Lesson 90- Oliver the Terrible

Confession:  I have a naughty puppy. 

It’s almost as the older he gets the worse he gets. Initially we would put him in his crate while we were away from the house. This was while he was in the process of potty training. He did really well with potty training and was almost completely accident free after living with us for two months. Our next step was to attach him to his leash so he could wander around a little, but when we would get home in his excitement he would pee while we were taking him off the leash. We decided that he was grown-up enough to stay with his big sister without any restrictions. But then we ended up finding our underwear lying around the house with holes chewed out. After replacing our underwear supply we tried leaving him out but with all doors closed so he only had access to the living room, dining area and kitchen.

This solution worked for a while. Until the day I came home from work and he had pulled the table cloth off the table, taken every throw pillow off every sofa, chewed on the TV remote, chewed up a book and magazine, and scratched a hole in our carpet. Argh!!! This little monster needs to be stopped!

Off to Target we went, in search of a baby gate. He would now be detained in the laundry room. It’s all tile, there’s plenty of space for a little guy to run around and with few objects for destruction. Husband and I spent a good 30 minutes seriously contemplating our baby gate options. We ultimately decided on the cheapest gate. 1) Because it was only $13.00 2) The openings weren’t big enough for him to even fathom squeezing through 3) Did I mention it was only $13.00?

We got home and Husband immediately blocked off the laundry room with our new baby/puppy gate. Sure it made bringing laundry in and out of the room a pain, but it was definitely worth the lack of mayhem otherwise. We all lived in happiness for all of two weeks. Then one Saturday while my parents were visiting we returned home from an outing and Montana greeted us at the door as usual, accompanied by her little brother. I immediately asked Husband why he hadn’t put Little Man away. He had. Well, then how did he get out?

The work week began again. Husband put Oliver in his laundry room, turned, and walked down the hall to the living room. He looked down and had been accompanied by Oliver. He scooped him up and put him back in the laundry room and watched as the little monster jump right over the gate. Great!  We were back at square one. What to do?!

We returned to leaving him out with Montana, closing all doors, and leaving nothing in reach (or so we thought). This was fine till I came home from work and he had scratched another hole in our carpet, chewed on Husband’s X-Box controller and in the process turned the X-Box on and opened the disc drive. Our next solution was locking him up again. We still have his crate.

This is an outdated pic.  It currently is in much worse condition.

 But this is where I mention that he’s scratched a hole in it—leaving the crate useless. So off to Petsmart we went, to buy this.

Hopefully this will sufficiently contain Little Man and thus save our house from further destruction.

Coming soon: new flooring!

Has anybody else had a naughty puppy who insists on mimicking Houdini? What house training tricks are tried and true with your little critters? Or are all your pets little angels like our Montana? Please leave your own pet confessions, so I know I’m not the only one with a naughty puppy.