Saturday, February 12, 2011

Bad Dog

Ever since that cake tin eating incident back in December, it's as if Lady has discovered this entire new world of food and fun that can only take place when she's left alone. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around a dog's behavior changing so drastically, in the middle of adulthood. For the past four years, food has been perfectly safe on the counter. Of course you'd never have to worry about Lucky. Why just the thought of such an offense would make him shrink in shame. This is what the face of innocence looks like:


But even Lady, who admittedly has a rascally side to her personality, has never bothered food left on the counter. Entire cakes or pies, steaks thawing...anything could be left on the counter. Garbage sack in the corner waiting to be taken to the garage? No problem. That was then.

This is now.

Yes, she has even figured out how to open the cabinet door to get the trash can out from under the sink! It strikes me that the door knobs look like a pair of crazed eyes, nervously watching out for the furry intruder. Now whenever Lady is left alone, there's an entire process to go through of making sure the doors are secured, trash put up, and all food secured. But still, she figures out a way to wreak havoc.

When I left for the gym at 8 am, this butter dish had a lid.


That's before it went crashing to the tile floor and shattered into a zillion pieces.


Butter???? Thank goodness no one was hurt.


Ugh. Guess it's time to retrieve the crate from the garage. What a bummer.

8 comments:

  1. Oops! I'm sure she never intended for there to be any breakage! Tonka had a lot of separation anxiety when we first brought him home but he's much better now. No more furniture chewing, yay! He still can't resist the trash cans, so we have to close the bathroom doors whenever we leave. Otherwise the floors are strewn with torn-up used kleenex and floss. He still has an occasional dig in the computer room trash bin (but he usually only turns up used lottery tickets! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My Pit boys have actually climbed on top of the computer desk in our absence and retrieved food that had been stuffed way deep back into the cupboards on top; a half of a bag of Golfish crackers, a box of candy. *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, sounds like crate time all right...

    ReplyDelete
  5. We're lucky our dogs haven't been going for food, but Miss M has been starting this new thing of purposely going on the couch, even though she's not supposed to. It's like when they're reaching middle age, they just stop caring.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Awww, I like my "house." Mommy & daddy always put me in there when they leave the house (they worry about Nala and me being alone together). Maybe the crate will help remind Lady that she shouldn't touch stuff in the house. But wow -- she opened the cabinet? Even I can't do that!

    Woofs & hugs,

    ~Bailey

    ReplyDelete
  7. We know momma did and not you
    Benny & Lily

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh dear. I guess that "reward" of cake has created a strong pattern for Lady that will take some time to fade; meanwhile, yup, crate time as those rewards--yum, butter!--just continue to reinforce the behavior. But crating or gating is fine, after all; hidden cameras reveal that very few dogs mind these modified dens. :-) Glad you've not seen any side effects from the broken butter lid or the extra fat!

    ReplyDelete