Playthings

Cowboy, like youngsters of many species, finds great pleasure in the simplest - and sometime silliest, things. One of his favorite toys is a very tough plastic bottle that once held medication for my other dog.  I dumped a handful of uncooked rice into to and sealed the lid shut.   It makes a soft rattling noise and he loves it.  

Another favorite toy is paper.  Yes, paper - any kind.  When he's being particularly troublesome because he is so wound up but I have work to do, I give him a sheet of clean paper from my printer.  He snatches it up and runs all over the house with it, growling at it and "killing" it by shaking his head back and forth, before he settles down and rips it to shreds.  The pieces then become toys as well.  He may eat a few small scraps but since there is no ink on it I don't worry about it - it is biodegradable.  Cardboard too; he loves the empty rolls from the paper towels.  I'm constantly picking scraps of paper and cardboard up off the floor, but it keeps him happy and satisfies his need to chew things up now that his adult teeth are beginning to come in.  The down side of this however, is that he is now big enough to stand on his back legs and reach the top of my desk, so every scrap of paper is fair game.  What better reason could I have to keep my desk cleaned up and everything filed away?

Food bowls - or should I say metal dog food bowls.  He goes nuts over them and after he and Kizzy have eaten the races to her bowl and licks it clean and then picks it up and runs all over the hose with it.  Problem is that he picks it up from the lower edge so that the entire bowl rolls up over his muzzle and he can't see where he's going.  He trots off with it in his mouth and his stubby little tail held up straight, as if he were Mister Studly, and then smacks right into a wall.  Does it phase him?  Not at all, he just keeps on going. One of these days I have to have my video camera handy after they eat their supper.  

As with most dogs, anything on the floor is there to be claimed by anyone who gets to it first.  Therefore gloves, wool hats, shoes (specifically shoe strings), slippers, socks, a dropped kitchen spoon... anything he finds goes into his mouth and off on a run through the house.  He is learning to leave my shoes alone and doesn't bother my slippers much anymore, but socks?  Oh yeah, socks are the BEST!   Soft and chewy and really fun to shake and "kill".  

I'm trying very hard not to scold him too much however, because I also want him to learn service dog exercises so he'll be able to - among other things - pick things up if I drop them.  He does pick up a few things - the tough part is getting him to LET GO.  Once he has it, "it's mine" and he does not want to give it up!  

Patience, patience...