My dog stays inside while I'm at work and a couple of months ago he decided that the prohibition against him getting on the couch doesn't apply when nobody is around. First it was just dog hair on the couch. Then I saw him standing on the back of the couch looking out the window. After that, he made himself comfortable and he'd be sitting in the back of the couch like a Sphinx just watching the world go by when I pulled into the driveway.
The beast is of a breed that is prone to separation anxiety. I've been working a good bit more the past few weeks and I guess it made perfect dog sense that eating the couch would help him cope with my absence. Maybe Xanax is made from leather and couch stuffing.
Instead of just hair, we started seeing scratches in the leather. Cover it with a tarp and he'd pull the tarp off. He managed to chew a hole in the leather a couple of weeks ago so I started putting a 1 x 12 across the back to cover the hole and hold the tarp in place. We piled cardboard boxes on it to keep him away but he'd just jump up on the back and be waiting there when I got home. Last weekend we noticed scratches in the leather on the top of the back of the couch. Another hole couldn't be far in the future.
The couch is already slightly ruined but I decided that I was going to win this battle anyway so I went to that place where the pets go and bought an indoor "pet barrier."
Its about the size of a smoke detector and it transmits a radio signal to the shock collar.
Excellent.
The first day, he was snooting around my briefcase before I left for work. The briefcase was in front of the couch and in range of "the barrier." The Lovely Bride saw him take about ten steps straight back away from the briefcase. He didn't make a sound. Just did a quick moon walk backwards. We've had it for 4 days and he hasn't touched the couch at all.
This morning, before going to pay her Tithe at the Temple of Sam Walton, TLB snapped the collar on the dog and turned the barrier on with the him standing right beside her. He took off for his kennel but she had to pass the kennel to get to the couch to put the barrier in place so the dog was trotting along trying to get away and she was right behind him through the kitchen, the dining room and into the living room. She didn't realize what she'd done until it was too late. Poor beast wouldn't come out of his kennel for over an hour.
I call it a decisive, strategic victory. I'll even go so far as to say that with this pet barrier gizmo, if you like your couch you can keep your couch. I will add one caution though. I waited until it was too late. My couch already had a hole in it before I realized what he was doing and he was working on a second hole so I had to get the barrier right away. I paid $111 for it at the place where the pets go and it was worth it to me. I found it on line for $42 plus shipping just now. Plan ahead.
2 comments:
I just so wish I had the use for one, but thanks for making me smile at the thought of the dog hair.
I'm glad you got a smile out of it. Its funny how the little, everyday memories become so important. I guess that Time is the only thing that can heal a loss like yours.
When lymphoma took my Black Lab, O.J., part of me wanted another dog but part didn't want to get a dog that I knew wouldn't have the bond that O.J. and I had. O.J. and I had just been through too much together for too long. He was just such a good friend that I couldn't get another dog for a long time. I finally decided to get a dog that was so different from a lab that I wouldn't be tempted to compare him to O.J. and I got a GSP that was returned to the kennel by his first owner.
Bullet is a good dog and definitely nothing like O.J. so I guess it worked.
I'm glad you are writing about Barkley. I wanted so bad to write about O.J. but I still can't. Shortly after he died, I wrote three pages of notes about his funny little mannerisms and things that he'd do just so I wouldn't leave anything out but I still can't do it after more than five years. And yes, just in case you are wondering, O.J.'s sister was a blonde lab and we named her Nicole.
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