Total Destruction

When we lived in a fairly busy urban setting, in a fairly good-sized town in Northeastern PA (actually on one of its busiest streets), we decided to get our first dog together.  This was in 1984.  We just bought the house across the street from the apartment we were living in.  It came up for sale and you just can't pass up a buy like the one we got on this house.  We spent the next 10 years fixing it up, inside and out, and sold it in 1994 to move out to the country.

My husband had a way of choosing dogs from a shelter.  He would go in, and of course all the dogs would bark and jump at the front of their cages.  (I was never trusted to go to the shelter because I would want to bring them all home.)  He would walk down the aisle and look for a dog that was quiet.  When he found the quiet dog, he would stand at the front of the cage and say one word.......SIT.  If the dog sat, it came home.  This was how we got our Chelsea.  She was estimated to be just a year old.  She was a lovely, shiny black dog that looked like a cross between an Irish Setter and a Black Lab.

We had a small kitchen at the time, but we kept her there whenever we went out to work.  When we were home she had the run of the house.  We didn't have any history or background because she came in as a stray.

Chelsea was the dog who first taught me about total destruction.  She did it when I was alot younger and had no dog destruction back bone.  In those days doggy destruction didn't just ripple off my back like water on a duck.

One day, about a month into our new dog ownership, I came home to find that Chelsea was not in the kitchen.  She had somehow escaped.  I did find her lying quietly in the family room, which was at the back of the house, happy to see me.  Then I decided to do a walkthrough of the front parlor area and foyer/entranceway.  This house had tan-gold wall-to-wall carpeting in the front areas.

If you saw the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and you remember the mound that Richard Dreyfuss builds in his house when they all think he is going crazy, close your eyes for a minute and picture it, because this is exactly what I found in the front parlor right on the middle of the tan-gold rug, right in the middle of the room.  Chelsea had carefully taken every house plant we owned and dumped them onto a pile, on which she proceeded to pee and poop (two times) and then also took every glass item we owned that was of knick-knack origin and placed them carefully on top.  It was unbelievable that a dog could be so careful and yet so messy.

And what did I do?  Remember, I was young, and didn't know dog destruction...I mean really know it.  I simply walked into the kitchen, and sat on the steps to the upstairs and cried.  This is where my husband found me when he came home.  Wimpering on the steps, trying to hiccup out the words..."ggggooo  sseee whattt Chelseaa ddd ddd  ddddid."  Pitiful.

We figured out, that day, that Chelsea was leaving us a message.  She had separation anxiety.  Something I'm familiar with today, but had no idea how to deal with back then.  You tend to learn how to solve problems when they present themselves.  And so that's why we brought home the second dog...Phillie...the Australian Shepherd.  From the moment Chelsea saw her, they were fast friends. In fact, we labeled them the "e" sisters because both of their names ended in that "e" sound.



Only scanned photo we have of the "E" sisters, Chelsea
and Phillie.

 Phillie was not at all destructive when it came to household items.  She just wanted to eat our cats, Muffin and Cleo.  Naturally, we had to work with that as well, so a whole host of problems were presenting themselves, requiring research, training, assistance, prayer and a stiff drink now and then.

Over the years, and our share of dogs who were chewers, I've been able to build up a pretty good backbone when it comes to destruction.  Destuffed pillows, chewed electronics, missing shoes later found in pieces hidden somewhere, chewed chair legs...you name it, we've been exposed to it.

Now, when destruction happens, instead of getting upset, the first question in my mind is "did the dog actually consume any of this?"  I can replace a chair for alot less than today's doggy-obstruction operation, not to mention the heartache and worry that all brings with it.


Love this photo!  Not my dog.


We have these lovely things we use today called "crates."  Crate training is an invaluable resource that I didn't know about when Chelsea was communicating with extra-terrestrials in our parlor, but it was part of our learning process.  I swear by crate training and we've used crates with all of our puppies.  I like to think of the crate as a way to safeguard my dog from eating something that might cause him/her to become ill or have serious medical problems.

We always have a crate opened in our house, normally in the family room.  If a problem starts to emerge where we are seeing a destructive tendency, we will crate the dog who is having the problem when we leave the house.

Last night we were on a mission to find a toaster.  Our toaster oven, after about 12 years, has decided it doesn't want to toast anything anymore.  We found a digital toaster that can do bagels as well as toast, and came happily home with our prize.  We were gone less than two hours, not unheard of, and certainly something we've done in the past.

Who knows what dynamic moves dogs to act or react in certain ways.  Whatever that catalyst is, it paid a visit last night, even though we didn't invite it.  Because we came home to some destruction.  On the scale of "small potatoes" to "OH MY GOD" it was probably a "well, would you look at that" kind of thing.  We had one loveseat pillow semi-destuffed, and some pee on the floor.  We let the dogs out, and marveled at the destuffing process.  Question one in our minds:  did anyone eat anything?  After a thorough crime scene investigation, we feel quite strongly that all dogs, while quite senseless in their acts, were sensible in not eating any of the stuffing.

Luckily, we are just waiting for the new furniture to come, and we have already gotten rid of a couch in the process, affording us the luxury of having some extra couch cushions that match, so we simply replaced the loveseat cushion quite tidily, did our clean up, and then let the dogs back in.  Tomorrow, the crates come out.  We think we know who our culprits are, and so the experimentation begins.

We've also had a conversation about buying some video cameras.  Perhaps put one in our barn so we can see the horses at all times when they are in, and one in our family room area, where the dogs hang out when we are not home.  In the meantime, if you have any destruction stories to share, feel free.  We love a good "in the same boat" story when we see one!



A mail sorter.  This could be useful!

 We lost Chelsea to pancreatic cancer when she was 10 years old.  She turned into a lovely dog all around, and we were happy to give her a home.

Phillie died from heart failure at the early age of five.  A very sad day for us.  She left us before Chelsea.  I don't think Chelsea was ever the same without her.

I still miss both of them and would take them destroying something any day if they were still here.

Aarrroooooo