You ate what?!

This weekend I experimented with leaving Secret out for half-days while I worked at the Humane Society. "Auntie Bethany" was on duty each day to come let the dogs out in the afternoon, so the plan was for me to leave Secret in her crate in the morning and Bethany would leave all three dogs loose when she left.

It sounds like all of the dogs enjoyed their play date with Rascal both days. Apparently, though, Secret got a bit possessive over Bethany during their visit on Sunday and bit Rascal in the ear! That wasn't nice.

At any rate, Secret has always been fairly obsessed with Kaiser's "Life Saver" toy that I use to put his treats into when I leave the dogs (the other two have knock-off Kongs). It's never been a bit deal -- I sometimes let her play with it for a bit and have always taken it away from her when she starts chewing too roughly on it.

Well, I should have known that this would happen! This is what I found on the floor when I came home on Saturday (chap stick tube is for size reference).


That's all that was left of the Life Saver -- It's slightly less than 1/4 of the original. I started digging around under the couch and looking under pillows, HOPING that I would find the other pieces, but I knew it was pretty futile. Sigh. All I could really do was cross my fingers and hope that she had chewed it into small pieces that would pass easily.

The good news is that she did tear it into nice bite-sized pieces before eating it, as was evidenced by the NUMEROUS small pieces that appeared in her poo starting Sunday and continuing through Monday. Lovely, Secret. Just lovely. At least it doesn't seem to be causing any issues, unless you count the bad gas it seemingly gave her.

Bethany made sure to pick up the food toys before she left on Sunday, but this didn't stop Secret from finding her own fun. I would have NEVER pegged her to scavenge for stuff, so I was quite surprised to find one of our fleece tuggy ropes in pieces on the floor when I came home. One can never know if she was after the tuggy or the tennis ball I had placed next to it Saturday night (found under the couch when looking for pieces of the Life Saver!). The tennis ball was untouched on the floor, likely where it landed, so I'll take a gander that the tuggy was the pursued prize. The good news is that it doesn't appear that she ingested any of it.

So we have two attempts at half days of freedom and two fairly benign infractions. Basically, I need to do a better job of cleaning up the house before I leave her loose! I work again this weekend, but don't know who will be coming to let the dogs out yet. It might be interesting to try reversing the schedule and letting her be loose in the morning and crated in the afternoon. My only worry in that situation would be having my parents or Bethany come in to a big mess -- Unlikely, but entirely possible!

I got the weaves out yesterday and surrounded them with jumps to work on entries & exits. Secret did well in her first session, but wasn't so into it for her second session (using her Wubba for that one). She seemed tired, though, so I won't dwell on it too much. The work we did get done was very good, though -- She's still doing very well with front crossing at the top of the poles and rear crossing at the bottom! Love, love, love it. I really must buckle down and get her going on twelve poles, though. I've been much too lazy with training again lately.