Oh sure. Stella has been a very good puppy. And I mean VERY good.
She...
...Doesn't bark. Unless she sees something that spooks her a bit which is understandable.
...Loves to cuddle. Yes, we have a 60 pound dog who thinks she's a lap dog. And I love it.
...Is smart. For example, I can say "Where's your ball?" and she'll go and find it and bring it back to me. It's awesome.
...Didn't have a huge chewing phase like a lot of puppies do...she mostly got at our toilet paper which is a lot better than our shoes or socks.
...Is calm for a lab. Meaning, in a room full of people with things going on she'll just lay down in the middle of it all and hang out.
...Is a good listener...when she chooses to be. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times when I tell her to come and she's way to busy investigating something to pay any attention to me.
However, lately...she's been a little trouble maker. We've been leaving her out of her kennel since she was about six months old and we've rarely had a problem. Remember the toilet paper I mentioned above? That would be the extent of what she'd get into and we solved that problem by shutting the doors to the bathrooms. However, the real mess started last week.
Monday I ran to the grocery store and when I came home she had chewed up Joe's Chaco sandals. Plus, she had my good walking/hiking shoes next in line. They were wet like she'd been licking them but no sign of destruction yet. Okay...Joe needs a new pair of sandals...we can handle that.
Then that same night, I left to volunteer at the hospital and Joe was taking one of his finals. I left at 6pm and he got home at 7pm. Within that hour she managed chew up about four decks of cards and our games UNO and Farkle. (For those of you who don't know what Farkle is...it's a dice game that comes in this heavy plastic like cup thing that you use to shake up the dice.) Nothing was salvageable. Not even the plastic!
Ugh. She knows what she does is wrong (see she's smart) because as soon as you walk in the door she is crawling to you with her ears as low as they can go. And she looks sad.
The next incident happened on Thursday. Joe and I went out for dinner, we were gone for about an hour, and this time she pulled books off our bookshelf and decided to chew those up! AHHH! We got mad at her again...I don't think I've said the word NO so many times within a five minute time span and we hoped she learned her lesson.
Not quite. Saturday we had to run about an hours worth of errands and although I mentioned putting her in the kennel, Joe wanted to give her one more try. He has a lot of faith in her. She got into the ONE thing I really care/need. My nursing textbook that I use for every. single. class. My heart sank and I started crying. Thankfully, I found my $180 book on Amazon for $90 and I should be getting it today or tomorrow.
Now, Stella is back in the kennel when we leave the house. The poor girl is to big for it too and can't sit up straight in it. Hopefully she'll realize it's not okay to chew on anything except for her toys. And it's so hard to stay mad when you're looking at this face...
No comments:
Post a Comment