Now we know the rest of the story. A “friend” gave us a pedigree and wallpaper dog worth five hundred dollars for free! She said that they didn’t really have time to work with him and wanted him to go to a good home. The only drawback was that we had to pick it up that day. She said they would be gone for a few days. We talked about this great opportunity to get a great deal and jumped right in. A free pedigree dog. wow! He was very cute. She threw the ball at him and various other toys for him. Why she gave us her chew toy, I don’t know. She chewed on everything but that toy. She should have been suspicious when the chew toy looked brand new.
That night and the following nights he cried that sad puppy cry. We tried the alarm clock on his bed with his blanket but he ended up in our room. It was the only way to get some sleep and at two in the morning you are desperate to sleep.
By five in the morning he was up and running, ready to play. We took him outside every hour for potty breaks and we also had puddle pads. She apparently held him until he returned to the house. He would go back inside and quickly wet the carpet. It must have been too cold to go outside or he wanted privacy and the backyard wasn’t private enough. Over the next few weeks, he chewed up and destroyed a cell phone, expensive shoes, a houseplant, a few books, and my favorite Afghan blanket. At the end of six weeks, our free offer dog had cost over seven hundred dollars in damages plus three hundred dollars at the vet for shots, deworming, etc. Then there was another five hundred for a secluded outdoor dog house, plus a kennel and dog park.
Free Pup also destroyed a wildly wacky fake rubber tree (we thought about this purchase quite a bit before spending that much money, but we thought it would last a long time), and outside chewed a brand new hammock to bits. I read that you should tie the chewed object to the dog so that he will follow it and not chew this kind of thing. I tried that and he chewed it up. Then I tied a few more pieces of the hammock around his neck until there was just a bunch of ropes left. He didn’t faze his chewing compulsion one bit. I have yet to hear from the friend Lucky gave us. I think he is hiding.
