Help!!! Need FOOL-PROOF dog repellent!
Holeeeee Mackerel! I walked in the door from this morning's meeting to find a chewed-up lamp cord scattered all over the living-room floor! Mercifully, Ruby picked the lamp that's plugged into an outlet operated by a switch on the wall. That's all that saved her from being badly hurt or electrocuted.
She's been at large in the house since she learned to work the doggy door and so quit defiling the floors. She has never been a chewer, never been a digger, never been especially destructive at all. So I was pretty horrified at this new antic. If she had to take up chewing, she couldn't have picked a worse target.
AND...now that she's chewed up one lamp cord without getting jolted into the next world, she quite naturally will think all of them are excellent toys.
So it's back into the crate with her, when I'm gone.
But I can't keep her locked up forever. Even now, sometimes I have to go to events that occupy more than three or four hours, which is as long as I think she should be confined without access to the backyard. And sooner or later, she's going to have to learn to live in the house.
I'm thinking it would be good to spray all the lamp cords with stuff to discourage her from chewing.
However, past puppy experience indicates that puppies, like children who get bad-tasting stuff smeared on their fingers to stop nail-biting and thumb-sucking, soon develop a taste for said stuff.
Has anybody found anything that ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY will repel a dog from chewing?
Comment
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Comment by Marcie on November 13, 2014 at 7:18pm
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I'm not sure anything is foolproof. I knew someone who ran cords inside of pvc pipe to protect them from the pet rabbit.
My cat went through a stage, about two years, where she ate shoelaces. After several ingestions, and panics, I discovered Phooey. It is similar to bitter Apple in that it is a spray. It deterred the cat more than bitter apple. I treated my shoes and all similar cords and strings on a regular basis. She would sniff the laces then do that open mouthed thing cats do when something stinks.
Bitter Apple worked better with Becca and her love of woodwork. She went through a spell from 10-13 months when all things wood were delicious. She lost the privilege of having free reign of the house. She also figured out how to take books off the bookcase at this time. Luckily she preferred paperbacks.
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Comment by Vicky Hay on November 13, 2014 at 3:52pm
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@ Natalie, Lance & Tucker: So far she's OK. The vet thinks it's safe to watch her and call him, any hour of the day or night, if anything untoward surfaces. We believe it will be a day or two before we can be sure she hasn't harmed herself.
HUGE panic: couldn't find the light-plug!! Thought somehow she chewed it into small enough pieces to swallow it and the metal blades. In a great sweat on the phone to Penny, the vet's assistant, while we were talking I walked into the backyard and YES! Ruby had carried the plug and a couple of other pieces of cord outside. Thank heaven she hadn't tried to chew up the plug.
Lined up the stretches of chewed cord and got about 40 inches, broken into four- to six-inch pieces. The copper cable inside a light cord has about six or eight thin, bendable copper wires. When ripped apart by puppy teeth, these are VERY sharp and hurt when the poke a human's finger. We're hoping they also hurt doggy gums and tongue enough to have discouraged her from swallowing it. Vet is hoping (betting?) she'll pass anything she swallowed.
I've used Bitter Apple in the past with no luck. Two dogs, at different stages of puppyhood, have come to love it so much they would lick it and seek it out to chew on stuff I'd sprayed with it. Ditto a mix of vinegar and cayenne pepper. Ditto Tabasco sauce.
She's locked in the office with me now, and about as NOT pleased with the human as you can imagine.
Lordie! Speaking of "not pleased," the paying work I was supposed to have done today has been consumed by this circus. Gonna be working till midnight to catch up! :-(
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Comment by Natalie, Lance &Tucker on November 13, 2014 at 2:48pm
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So glad Ruby is ok!!!! A friend of mine pup was not so lucky. :( Apple bitter worked well for us but each pup is different, some like it and some do not. She's still very much a pup, so yes, the crate is the best and safest place for her.
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