Posts Tagged ‘chew toys’
4th Down
The NFL Wildcard Playoff Weekend is not over yet (2 games left today), but I am already a little woozy after two days of elimination desperation decision-making about going for it on 4th down. They weren’t all close games but they all contained the drama of getting knocked out of the playoffs in the first week if you lose.
Watching football several days in a row is a lot easier to do when the weather outside is frightful. It’s also a little less stressful for me this year because my team isn’t a contender. My allegiance leans toward teams representing the same division and conference as my Minnesota Vikings, but it’s not unlike me to change my mind in the middle of a game and root for their competition if circumstance dictates.
Color me fickle when it comes to other franchises and their fans. I had to pull for the Detroit Lions last night because I wasn’t up to seeing fans’ disappointment if they’d lost.
As the series, “Ted Lasso” reiterated, “It’s the hope that kills you.” In an earlier game, it was Dallas fans who had their hopes crash and burn in dramatic fashion. I felt sorry for them but it was offset by how thrilled the fans of Green Bay were.
Asher was a little disappointed we didn’t spend as much time outdoors as usual. He wasn’t interested in any of the NFL games. We pretty much exhausted all of his favorite indoor games. We’ve converted his outdoor “indestructible” throw ring into an indoor chew toy that occupies him for large chunks of time when he gets in that groove.
His bin of indoor toys becomes a wonderful time sink when a handful of his dry food is tossed in and around the objects so he has to nose stuff out of the way to find the precious morsels.
When that game is over there are usually more toys scattered around on the floor than remain in the bin. We can tell the exercise is completed when the sound of crunching kibble stops occurring. He might move around a few more toys, but when the munching is over, he’ll soon be looking for a new distraction.
I count myself lucky when he decides the next activity can be a nap instead of incessant whining to go outside.
It’s funny, I’m just the opposite. I start whining when I want to take a nap. When I’m successful and permission to sleep is granted, it’s a bit like getting a first down on that dramatic 4th down try.
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More Chews
This picture provides a great view of how Asher adores the custom homemade chew toys Cyndie has been creating for him:
After completing a craft project of her own, Cyndie wrapped leftover fabric scraps around chew toys Asher hasn’t been showing much fascination with for a while to give them new life. Adding a few morsels of smelly treats piques his interest and motivation to rip into the tantalizing new toys.
Even though they don’t last long, it’s fun to see his playful destruction occupy his mind with something creative when nothing else seems to be satisfying him for a moment.
I’m looking for all the distractions I can find to occupy him while deer hunters are out and about in our surrounding properties. Asher does not like being confined to quarters!
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Homemade Chews
Our dog, Asher is a chew toy destroyer. He loves to rip things to pieces. Since he also shows a passion for tug-of-war, rope toys give him a chance to do both tugging and destroying. Cyndie bought him a “ball” made of rope which was a genius idea for a toy.
He showed moderate interest in it until one section finally came loose so he could begin to shred it. Since then, his interest soared and he thrills in bringing it to us for some tugging that leads to holding it for him to chomp the unraveling rope.
Asher also takes great pleasure in tearing the stuffing out of fabric toys and then shredding the fabric. Watching him do this to something Cyndie just bought causes us mixed feeling$.
Well, it causes me mixed feelings. I love seeing him have fun but the idea of destroying something we just spent a lot of money on bothers my miserly mindset.
That led to an idea. I asked Cyndie if she would consider sewing together some “toys” out of found materials we have at home. I brought her a short length of natural rope and Cyndie produced a collection of heavy fabric pieces. We also dreamed up the idea of putting a hard chew he’s shown meager interest in, inside one of the toys Cyndie was sewing together.
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Cyndie then put one of his squeaky balls inside a little pillow she made.
He loved it! Surprisingly, he didn’t immediately rip the new toys to shreds. He mostly seemed to be trying to shake the pillow to death. The long, skinny thing had scrap pieces from a store-bought stuffed squirrel he chewed to pieces sewn onto each end. That seemed to fascinate him.
He spent a little more time trying to rip into that one, but it was still mostly intact as of last night.
With days of rain (plus predictions for slushy snow tomorrow) keeping us indoors for long spans of time lately, there haven’t been a lot of opportunities to get him running around outside. We keep trying to find other ways to expend some of Asher’s high-octane energy.
Methodically destroying sanctioned homemade chew toys gives him a good combination of mental stimulation with the tactile reward of chomping on something interesting.
I just hope we aren’t conditioning him to seek out any old thing lying around the house whenever that urge to gnaw on something shows up.
Meanwhile, I just finished putting together a small wooden puzzle to start my season.
Let it rain and snow. We’re good to go indoors.
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A Destroyer
Before I get to tales of Asher’s skills as a destroyer of dog toys I would like to self-report my successful destruction of the largest walleye fillet I have ever been served.
I made sure to put my fork on the plate for reference. Had I known it was going to be that massive I would have ordered the broiled option instead of batter-fried. I made it through half the serving at dinner Thursday night and enjoyed the rest for lunch yesterday. That was a BIG fish. Oh, and delicious, as well.
Now, Asher’s destructive skills extend well beyond his ability to annihilate bowls of his food at meal times. We have been happy to employ the trick of tossing old toys in the tub with a scattering of treat pellets but it has led to him choosing to reduce the number of toys getting in his way.
Yesterday he pulled the stuffing out of three different items. The challenge for us is that his escapades in this realm require constant supervision. When he gets wound up/bored/anxious/hangry/frustrated his behavior often drops down to biting pillows, cushions, or furniture corners.
We need to quickly steer his teeth toward sanctioned chew toys. Then we have to studiously watch for the threads and fabric shards Asher tries to eject off his tongue without pause between fresh attacks of the object of his attention.
Then comes the stuffing. He appears to feel great pleasure in pulling out massive wads of the cottony padding. Thankfully, he shows no interest in consuming the stuff. It leads to some comical gyrations as he works to push it out of his mouth as fast as he is pulling in the next bite he can get his teeth on.
Our hands are kept busy trying to grasp the sloppy clouds of stuffing that show up –some sticking to his chin or getting caught on a tooth– while staying clear of his busy canines.
We are not there to interrupt his project, just safely facilitate his progress and keep the disaster scene from becoming overly gruesome.
With Asher’s penchant for the total destruction of purchased toys, we have added an incentive to employ the advice we received in the obedience classes about alternatives that didn’t come from a store.
He is not allowed to take things out of the recycle bin but we are allowed to give them to him if we so choose. A few morsels of his food slipped into an empty box will provide several seconds of entertainment for us and a distraction from his urge for chewing on unauthorized items.
It feels a lot like an exercise in reverse psychology to me. Allow him to shred some trash before he surreptitiously sneaks off and does it on his own. Instead of getting in trouble for it, he finds out he is behaving as expected?
Whatever it takes to keep his mind busy solving entertaining challenges that don’t consume our life savings is worth a try in my view. We don’t want this dog to destroy our financial future. [I’m exaggerating, I hope you’ll know…]
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Plenty Attention
Today will mark the completion of Asher’s first week at the lake. It’s fair to say he has adjusted pretty well to all the combinations of people and other animals that swirl around the Wildwood property in general and Friswold’s “cabin” in particular.
He is getting big love from all of Cyndie’s family and learning how to not bark at every movement of other people he can see from his lofty vantage point out on the second-story deck.
Cyndie and I have experimented with different attention exercises for Asher that we learned about in the obedience classes.
Tossing morsels of his dog food into a tub filled with toys requires that he push around items that may have fallen from his interest to find the snacks he can smell.
That tends to renew his liking for some items he had begun to ignore.
Asher has a remarkable inclination to push his squeaking tennis-style balls underneath furniture. When he tries that game out on the deck, the ball tends to roll off and fall to the ground one level below. Yesterday, I went down below and initiated a game of catch where I would throw the ball back up over the railing.
It proved to be an exception to the norm of so many other games where he tends to be the only one really enjoying it. I was having a blast trying to catch the balls he was nudging over the edge and then tossing them back up in a manner that gave him a fair chance of catching it with his mouth.
Beck devised a modified chew toy combination that has become my favorite. He forced one of the larger Kong balls in the middle of a hard chew ring.
It makes it harder for Asher to pick up but he seems interested in the challenge because he can almost get his teeth on the half of felt-covered ball that sticks out of each side.
Asher was flipping and kicking it around with great fervor yesterday. It seemed almost too hard for him to separate the two toys at first but now it is getting easier with practice.
With all the fun and attention Asher has been enjoying up at the lake this week, I’m starting to wonder if his eventual return home will become a disappointment for him.
Not that I’m projecting how we feel when we get home onto him or anything…
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Relative Something 