This morning Leo flipped me out, with his strange personality, I do realize that I have said this on here before, but these two new dogs are very different than any dog I have ever seen, not sure how to take them, and I have never had that problem with any other dog before figuring them out, and I have had many dogs. We let Foxy stay inside the last two nights and Leo stay on the front porch because foxy gets really cold because she doesn't have as much hair, unlike Leo, and just shakes at 50 degrees, which last night it was 36 degrees, anyway when I went out onto the porch this morning, with Leo, he came up to me and I felt his hair which was cold feeling and he was really tense feeling in his muscles but his skin was warm. So when I put him in the backyard, so Molly and Foxy could have the front yard, he stood on his hind legs walked over to me and wrapped his forearms around my arm, real gently but firm, and tugged at me to stay, being real careful not to touch his nails to my skin, it was obvious, what he was doing. That dog can really walk very well on his hind feet. There have been times that I think these dogs are crazy, but then they show me things, that let me know they're not.
Leo made me so mad yesterday when I was cutting grass a week ago I went by boat cutting on the rider mower and the rear tire hit the left rear tail light I had not long ago put on boet and smashed it. A few days ago, I put the old tail light on it and then ordered the tail light pigtail for the truck, comes today. Leo decided that he didn't like that tail light and decided to chew a hole in the side of it and I caught him doing it and scolded the heck out of him. Then put Leo into the smaller pen all night so he couldn't get to it all night. He has been out back with that boat ever since we got him, except when we let him around to the front yard and he never chewed on boat lights or any part of the boat. Teaching these two has been a hard task, especially when you're busy all the time. They're unlike any dog I have ever seen in my life, and I stay persistent in teaching them, right from wrong, but they will still try me in many ways, they're young and different. Being older now it's harder to be as patient as I use to be, but I'm sure that I can maybe, make good dogs out of them, I hope.
I went out and tape it up, for now, on that corner where he chewed it. Will replace it later. And put some wd40 on it, then let him into that yard, out of his smaller pen. He went straight to it, and started smelling it but didn't chew on it again as of yet.
I think that Leo might have chewed the tail light because he could smell that you had touched it, @Jake Smith , and before that he was not really interested in it. Poodle always has to have one of Bobby’s shirts that he wore that day on his part of the bed at night. He snuffles his nose down into the shirt and then wiggles around until he is comfortable there. If you can give Leo his own toy/buddy to sleep with, he would probably like that. And some dog biscuits to chew at bedtime, so he has done the chewing thing and is ready to sleep. Poodle and Rusty get a little bite of hot dog or bologna at bedtime, and a Milkbone dog biscuit, and then they are happy and ready to go to sleep. Many years ago, I had a blue Merle collie, and one day I was out planting daffodil bulbs along the edge of the sidewalk. She was always around me , wherever I was, but was a mature dog and never chewed anything, ever. When I finished planting, I looked back, and she had gone behind me and dug up every single bulb after I had planted it, which puzzled me to no end . Eventually, I realized that when a dog buries something, it is a bone or some other treat that they are saving to eat later; so my guess was that to her mind, I must be hiding treats, and she checked each one and decided it was not edible.
Yvonne these dogs will chew up any and everything!. They have chewed up my flowers, plant pots, lawn mower pull string, dog beds, wooden screen porch frame, outside table and chair. Leo is throwing around a FIVE GALLAN equine water bucket as I type this post. He has been working on it for weeks now, Jake dug a whole to make it harder for Leo to dump and run with it. We spent lots of money we didn't really have on dog toys, like tough ropes, tough bunnys, duck toys and balls, and they just bury dog biscuits then try to fight if one digs up the other's biscuit. . I think because they starved for so long before we got them it affected their minds. They were chained and starved for one year and one month before we got them when they were 13 months old. That was March,
I think you're right about what he has done after I had changed it, and could smell my scent on it. There are a little different than other dogs, I've had, I think they were so malnourished their first year with their other owner that it messed them up a little, and will take more time before they can act right. Great ideas you put up and I can relate to your dog digging the bulbs up. Rosie our donkey did that to our mulberry tree every time I planted it after we had just bought it, and I kept replanting it and it made it anyway, it's huge today.
When we got these dogs, I said they would never be chained again after hearing how Foxy aka BeepBeep, had dug a trench a few feet deep from pacing back and forth on a 8' chain. They really put that promise to the test!!!
Since they are only a little over a year old, they are still going to have those puppy traits for another year or more. Some dogs settle down faster than others, but Rusty was probably going on 3 before he got over going in Bobby’s garage/shop and hauling stuff out. I think that we did put some of the Tabasco sauce on some things and that helped Rusty to stop chewing, and I always made sure that he had a good supply of those rawhide bones to chew up for his teeth. The worst chewer I have ever had was a Border Collie. Our landlord had gotten her somewhere and could not keep her, so he sent her to us. She was a working dog, and not made to just lay around and do nothing, so she chewed up every possible thing that she could chew, just because she was frustrated. We finally had to tell the landlord she needed a different home than with us, because she wanted to be busy all of the time.
Makes sense to me, figure they need more time too. When you put a leash on them, they mind quite well and walk quite well, they show the potential of being smart, in many ways, more than when we first got them and already cut out some of their bad habits too. Leo used to tear into my chair cushion and towel, that I sit at on the porch, then after scolding him awhile he switched to Marie's towel, he would grab it up not chew it up but take it out into the yard. Now after her scolding him several times, it's been a few weeks, and he hasn't moved it. You're right about Border Collie needing things to get rid of energy or frustrations from not working. They're very smart dogs too, I think Leo and Foxy get plenty of exercise running, with all the room they have for running, and they do, you see them fly by again, and again until they get tired.
We don't have four legged critters here but I am getting excited about the upcoming bird swap. They cancelled the spring one because of bird flu. But the fall one is on! They don't just sell birds but almost anything but turkeys and hooved animals. A possum got my little silkie rooster who was almost like a dog. He could not fly or even run very well but cuddling? He was great at. I am going to try to find another like him and although I don't like to keep my chickies locked up, I will try keeping him in the chicken tractor. My daughter almost got me a guinea pig, which I would have liked, at the last swap but hubby would not like it. We had them for years and he never said anything. Now he says no.
I think prayers do get answered sometimes. Like after ten days of Molly not eating, after her stroke, and me carrying her in and out to use the restroom, I prayed to the Lord for her not to keep suffering and even considered we should put her down, just knowing she was dying. She came back and still going today, eating twice a day and still drinking lots of water.
The winds from TS Nicole are making the dogs nervous, especially Leo who also has ear mites I need to treat, but he needs to calm sown some first. I have been putting off cleaning his ears but now it is urgent, he may have ear mites, or thats what I think.
I said no to putting her down and she is now running around the trails with me walking for exercise. She seems happier since the stroke and Jakes prayer. She is such a survivor. She also seems to 'almost' like Foxy and Leo.