I’ve written plenty about Luke’s toy destruction, but not too much about his counter surfing, and his bad habit of picking up anything and everything and sometimes eating it. Along with “please don’t eat that!” you’ll hear a lot of “leave it” and “trade” around here, which sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t.
So when Petplan pet insurance asked me if I would share their “Eat This, Not That” poison guide, I thought it would be a great opportunity to do so and tell a bit about Luke’s escapades in this department. First of all, I’ll say that so far we’ve been lucky, knock wood, that he hasn’t eaten anything dangerous. Yet. That we know of. My biggest fear is that we’ll end up in the ER with him sooner or later. He may have already eaten something that we don’t know about, and it’s just sitting inside him waiting to cause problems. Ugh.
Our screen porch has been under construction recently, being changed over to a four season porch. Do you know how sloppy contractors are? I thoroughly scour the yard after they leave and yet somehow Luke has still found screws, pieces of siding, wood, insulation, etc, etc. I don’t think he ate any of those things. I’m pretty sure I should just have the treat pouch as part of my wardrobe though, so I always have a “trade” handy. He likes to turn it all into a game of chase, so we’ve had to learn not to buy into that.
Last Sunday he really had me pulling my hair out. Construction is about over, so that’s not an issue any more. Instead he spent his day getting into anything else he could find in the house. I try to be diligent about leaving things out of his reach, but I can get preoccupied and be forgetful sometimes. Here is a list of the things I had to “trade” for, just in that one day:
- a roll of toilet paper from the upstairs bathroom
- my hubby’s boot (he thought covering them with his sweatshirt would work, it didn’t)
- a sock that I don’t even know where it came from
- a dish cloth from a drawer I accidentally left open
- a dust cloth from the cabinet I accidentally left open when I was chasing him down trying to get the packet of glaze for our cinnamon buns that he stole off the counter.
- My vegetable scrubber brush.
- Then there was the cardboard from the flooring boxes my husband thought he could leave under the deck. We were sitting on our newly finished porch and couldn’t figure out what the noise was we were hearing from outside!
I can’t believe I had any hair left after that day. By far though, Luke’s favorite things are tissues, napkins, toilet paper, or paper towels that he steals from anywhere he can find them. Those he will not trade off, because I don’t know, I guess they’re yummy? He defiantly chews and swallows before I can get him to trade or leave it.
Petplan’s guide tells many stories of things that pets have eaten and just how dangerous some things can be. It’s a great primer with lots of cute illustrations (like that cute one to the left), and it thoroughly covers household and seasonal hazards, as well as signs and symptoms to watch out for (definitely need to know for us).
It’s not just dogs though. Our late cat Katie looked with disdain on this fun toy I bought her, but she used to love to play with the caps off 
a milk jug, and also the plastic strip you pull off when first opening it. We thought she just played with those strips, until I came home one day and found one upchucked on the kitchen floor!
I am keeping Petplan’s guide saved to my favorites, because I have a feeling I’d better keep that information close by. So, what do your pets get into?
*Disclaimer: I am not being compensated in any way by Petplan. They asked if I would share their guide, and I thought it was a valuable resource for my readers’ to know about.
Coming soon!
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Well you already know what Delilah gets into and I have a suspicion the lab in Luke will win out in this. Truthfully I have resigned myself to the fact that one day, Delilah will eat something that will kill her. I know it’s horrible and I feel terrible saying it, but good lord!! Like you there are some things I know she’s eaten, but it makes me wonder how many things she’s eaten that I DON’T know about.
It’s so funny you commented today. Just this morning I went into the kitchen and there was Luke trying to get his head into the sink, where I had put some hard boiled eggs. I instantly thought of Delilah stealing chicken out of your sink!
I just have to resist the urge to run Luke to the vet every time I think he might have eaten something he shouldn’t! We’re just not that rich.
I think Luke is Gmans brother from a different mother, he is a little mischief maker. Glad he hasn’t had to go to the ER.
If Gman is the king of mischief, then Luke is the prince. LOL Keep your fingers crossed for no ER please!
Luke, you’re going to bring your momma gray hair before her time. Stick with edibles.
You’ve got that right!!
Neither of the boys get into stuff anymore. Pierre does kill toys. HOwever, if you drop food on the floor, forget about it. Instant vacuums!
“Hoovers” is what we call them….LOL. Comes in handy when we accidentally dump cat food.
Thunder was the worse counter surfer. I tried everything and sometimes I think he just liked seeing how upset I got when he swiped stuff. Anyway, at 18 months it all went away. Presto done. I hope it works that way for Luke.
Thank you for giving me hope!! Some of it is definitely Luke just wanting to play. Anything he finds that he knows he shouldn’t have is a new toy and SO much fun (for him…LOL).
Luke is still quite young. Hopefully he’ll outgrow the worst of his chewiness.
Honey was a typical “mouthy” golden retriever puppy. I guess I should say the squeaker she swallowed resulting in thousands of dollars of emergency surgery was most memorable. But comes to mind first is when she lightly chewed on the plastic bottle in my hair dye kit.
I didn’t notice she had punctured the bottle until I saw dark hair dye squeezing out the back of the bottle all over the newly painted bathroom walls and just-installed linoleum floor.
Honey has not chewed on anything inappropriate in years. Hopefully you’ll have the same experience with Luke.
I so hope you’re right about him outgrowing the worst of it, Pamela. He had some habits when he was younger that he has given up, so I do feel optimistic.
Oh no, hair dye?! I’m glad to hear that Honey outgrew it…I think those two things were more than enough!
That’s really quite some list, you’re good buddy! 🙂
I hope you’re having a fun day,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
I wanted to make you proud of me with some good mischief, Snoopy, because I know you’re the king!
Your friend Luke
OMD, he should keep you in Monday Mischief posts for a long time to come! I know I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s a funny list! Glad he’s never eaten anything dangerous!
Fingers crossed! It’s OK to laugh, I’m trying to laugh about it so I don’t worry quite as much!
Luke was a pretty good puppy so he didn’t give me a lot of Monday Mischief posts….I think he’s just making up for lost time now. LOL
Actually, come to think of it, when he was younger he was always chewing on rocks which made me nervous, and he doesn’t do that anymore. Hopefully that means there’s hope!
Luke, you have a special talent for finding things you’re not supposed to have. I bet that potato was fun to sink your teeth into.
What could be more fun than a potato, right? I was tempted to just let him keep it, but I wasn’t quite sure if that would be good for him or not. Plus it might not have set a good example!
Oh, goodness, yes, you have your hands full, Jan, and I know it isn’t really funny, but can’t help but laugh when you put it all out there on this post, in such a, can’t help it, funny way!! But so the last comment about his favorites-that is so like Bear, remember, the paper products were his favourite-yup, go after him, and he would try to chew and swallow as fast as he could before you could get it out of his mouth! Only 2nd to those products, were his favourite Jordan socks, lol!!
Like I said in a previous response, if we don’t laugh about it, we won’t stay sane! It will be funny as long as we can avoid the ER, which luckily you did when Bear ate that sock! Bear was definitely the king of eating inappropriate things, but I think maybe he got better as he got older?
I’ve always been glad my guys are too short to counter surf and so far haven’t thought of boosting each other up. Although I expect that might happen any time.
Sometimes they prove to be too smart for their own good, right? 🙂
A friend of mine just had a dangerous encounter with a melon ball and their pup. Information such as this is extremely important to share. Thanks
Melon ball? I thought melon was OK for dogs? I think this is important as well, there are many things we don’t realize that can be dangerous for dogs.
Mr. N usually just eats bad edible things. Like chicken bones. He doesn’t seem to have a taste for chocolate though, thankfully. He has found it outside several times.
That is good that Mr. N declined chocolate! Chicken bones are scary though. We’re lucky to live in a rural area where there is not a lot of litter around, so that’s one thing we have going for us anyway.
Wow, you really gotta keep an eye on Luke! Thank cod we’re cats and a lot of that stuff doesn’t interest us.
It sometimes makes me wish I was still a cat only person! LOL….not really. 🙂
Oh boy! It sounds like Luke is very mischievous! Barley has poisoned herself several times–she’s eaten sugar-free gum and gotten into a bottle of aleve (although I don’t know if she actually swallowed any of those). She’s eaten turtle brownies, a stick of butter, and a variety of other items on the bad-for-pets list! Luckily, she’s a bit of a tank, so she’s recovered fully from all of the incidents, but she can never be unsupervised! Glad I’m not the only one with my hands full, but I hope that Luke’s countersurfing doesn’t get him into trouble!
Wow…she has definitely given you a run for your money. I hope we can manage to keep Luke out of dangerous things at least. We try to be diligent, but sometimes stuff happens (as you well know). We had some practice with our late golden Moses…he got into a lot so we’re used to having to keep an eye on things. But we still screw up sometimes (like a toy Luke or Sheba ate part of yesterday).
OMD Luke! He sounds like a handful haha. And I wonder what he plans to do with the potato? Shiner will still eat things she shouldn’t and she will counter surf for food items. I remember helping with a check up on a dog once and I noticed something sticking out of his butt… we removed it and it was a piece of paper plate. The owner said they fed him on paper plates… guess he ate those too. At least they came out OK, I guess =/ lol
Parts of paper plates have been consumed around here too, so we have to watch that!
Luke definitely is a handful! I’m not sure if he would have eaten that potato or not, and I also wasn’t sure if that would be good for him, so I took it away before we could find out. 🙂
Kilo is very food motivated and tends to hide things he finds. I have to always keep a very close eye on him.
That’s funny that he hides them. Luke can’t keep it a secret when he has something he shouldn’t. He romps around gleefully!
Goodness, Luke! That’s a lot of mischief 😉 I’m so lucky that Mauja and Atka have never showed any interest in eating things they shouldn’t and they don’t counter surf. I should probably knock on wood as I say that.
Yes, you should, just in case. 🙂 We had this same problem with our male golden retriever, but he’s been the only one, and I don’t remember him being quite this bad (he outgrew some of it, but not all).
WOW! All that stuff in ONE day?? Luke, you crazy pup!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Some days are definitely worse than others…LOL.
OMG. I have a 2 pugs that are just like that. Whatever they find within reach they think they should eat. One has figured out now he can jump and if something is on the edge of the counter he can knock it off. He wiill grab dishes and silverware out the dishwasher as I load it. Any cardboard he finds and lord he loves it when the bathroom doors are left open. He love toilet paper and washclothes and towels and soap. Anything in a plastic bottle. Don’t leave the dryer open unattended cause you will find you clean laudry in his crate and heading out the door.
Oh my goodness! Pugs are adorable! Are they young? Luke is really our first dog to counter surf. Our beagle Cricket can jump, but she’s never used that to try to get anything off the counters. Our late golden retriever Moses also loved bathroom products. We always had to close the bathroom doors when we weren’t home, and that was even when he was 8 years old.
Great post! Miley once stole a hot baked potato while counter surfing! lol
Ow! When Luke was a puppy he jumped up and licked a hot pan on the stove! Too bad that didn’t teach him a lesson early on.
Thankfully nothing. Torrey will sometimes find something yucky when we are out walking or hiking, but she is fairly good at “leave it”.
Good to hear! Hopefully Luke will outgrow this, especially if we just keep working on the training. Hopefully eventually it will work all of the time instead of just some.
Your home and ours are so similar. Cat bro Bert eats his toys, so he has none, he eats cables, shoe laces, etc. So far he has always puked them up or they were pooped out. Bailie as the world knows is begging for emergency surgery at some point to remove something but so far, we have been lucky and things have come out one end or the other. It is hard on mom, but she can only do so much. Drop it, leave it is what we hear constantly on our walks!
It’s so true, that we can only do so much. We just have to do the best we can, and hope everything “comes out” OK. Oh, and hope like heck that they outgrow it!
Luke is a kleptomaniac! HAHA…….the potato makes me giggle but I realize it’s not so funny when he’s all over the house taking all sorts of things for his “collection”. Cute photos though……!
Pam
Oh, he is definitely a klepto! We have to laugh about it…it’s the only thing that keeps us sane. 🙂