| Jun. 22nd, 2009 08:44 pm What is up with Rocket? Over the last 3 days, Rocket has torn apart 3 different dog toys! Since we got him, he's destroyed a toy every few months (plus made a few so icky from slobber that they also went away). But this seems to have greatly accelerated.
On Saturday, he destroyed Bone -- an inexpensive stuffed red bone. He'd had this incarnation of bone for 3 or 4 months (and another one just like it from before we got him). So yesterday after Church,  robot_grrl and I stopped by PetCo and picked up Doggie -- a neoprene covered version of the common dog-shaped toy. Before I went to bed, he had torn it opened and the head and removed some stuffing. So less than a day after getting it, Doggie got hidden in our trashcan.
This evening, I stopped by PetCo again and got him Hose -- supposedly a stuffed piece of fire hose. Not long ago, I went upstairs and found Hose sitting with a big hole torn in one corner. I've put it out of his reach and will try to fix it if I can find our duct (or is it duck) tape.
I'm beginning to wonder if he is upset because Derrick is gone, is feeding off of the stress that Tara and I are feeling about the Bartlett House, or a combination of the two.
I'm just hoping that we'll be able to keep him from going through too many toys before he calms down. I'm also worried about what he'll destroy if he doesn't have a toy of his own. With the house, furniture and even the cat there are many things that he could do serious damage to. 3 comments - Leave a comment   |
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Rocket is almost certainly worried about D not being there, especially if D was Rocket's primary playmate. You're lucky he's taking it out on the toys and not your shoes or the furniture. You mostly need to spend more time playing with Rocket; more high-quality attention should cure the problem.
Yep, stress/missing the boy.
Go back to the pet store and get something tougher - since it sounds like you usually get him soft-ish toys, get one of the rope ones, with or without a Kong attached. The ropes take an amazing amount of abuse before they need to be retired, and the dog gets the satisfaction of being able to pull bits off (which can be consumed and pass without damage). I think we've only retired one due to destruction, when Elrond finally chewed completely through the knot.
If he likes harder toys, a Kong or one of the really good hard Nylabones. We do have to retire the Nylabones ocassionally, when they're gnawed down to a chisel shape on one end, but it's a long process.
