Well I thought dogs eating things was just part of having a pet? I mean,

they look at you with those eyes, wag their tails, lick your face and

meanwhile they are scoping out their surroundings to see what has the best

chewability once you leave. We have always rescued Dalmatian and Dal

mixes. Dal’s are VERY intelligent and have the uncanny knack of figuring

things out on their own. Toby, my big white spotted brainiac, was by far

too smart for his own good.

Over the course of many years our dogs have learned the basics of sit,

shake and lay down. There are a few skills that they have also learned on

their own. My three dogs are all partners in crime and can open closed

doors, scratch up any painted surface, eat any cell phone in 5 minutes

flat, get at any trash can placed in a cabinet or counter, sniff out a

candy wrapper in a child’s pant and chew a hole in the pocket to get at it,

eat any paper product available, or how about chomping down on about ten

tubes of lipstick at $17 a stick? Shades of Ancient Brick and Café Latte

smeared on the beige carpet and Toby looking like a common street walker

with too much makeup on.

One of their favorite, and oh to frequent adventures, would involve the

refrigerator and the ability to open those doors. Imagine how delightful

it was to see the entire contents of the icebox emptied on the kitchen

floor as they enjoyed a smorgasbord of a ten pound ham, a tub of butter,

loaf of bread, and all the extras from the Tupperware containers licked

clean. The only items left - a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. Guess they

were saving those for breakfast the next morning. After this happened

about half a dozen times, us HUMANS got a bit smarter. We are the only

house I know of where we chain and lock our side by side fridge doors so

that our dogs can not help themselves to food.

Another wonderful talent that left us adapting our home was the fact that

they discovered when they pulled the stove door down, Artemis – who is our

Jack Russell/Dalmatian mix, could then jump on the kitchen counter from the

stove door. Once there, he would open all the cabinets containing food and

push the items out of the cabinets to the floor. Let the feeding frenzy

begin! Once again us HUMANS adapted by using tape to secure the stove door

handle to the top of the stove. We first tried masking tape (their paws

ripped that right off) then moved to electrical tape (which they thought

was fun to get a small piece loose and then pull off the rest) until we

found wide duct tape is too sticky for them to bother with. Was difficult

to cook anything, but at least the counter raids stopped!

This same little JRT/Dal mix happened to eat a kong toy – yes that is

correct, a KONG – and had to have it surgically removed this past Feb.

Three pieces found within his intestines and stomach were they had wedged

in securely and we were able to surgically remove for a small price (ouch).

The only good doggie is Annie, our Pit Bull/Dal mix. She has only ever

eaten cardboard. Gosh I love that girl!!!