Austin, the rescue beagle, has been in our family for two weeks now. Compared to our old dog, Frank, Austin is like a little angel. He doesn’t bark, he doesn’t beg next to the dining table, he heels on the walks, sits down when asked and is starting to recognize his new name Austin pretty well. To be honest, I first thought something was wrong with him, he was just too good to be true.
But then… we decided to take kids to movies and left the dog home alone for the first time. We didn’t see Marley and Me, but when we got home.. Our sweet little Austin had turned into Marley.
The door frame was chewed, the blinds were chewed. One rug was chewed. Actually it had three big holes in it. And Austin had peed right in the front of the front door.
I hear separation anxiety is normal among beagles. So I guess this meant we had some sort of bonding already with Austin, since this separation anxiety presented itself.
I know there are several ways to train a dog to be left alone home, for example crate training. We are still in the beginning of our journey with Austin and as of today have not started crate training him yet. But what we did do… we bought him the best ever dog chew toy so he can work on that chewing problem (or separation anxiety can be turned into “having too much fun to freak out even though my people are gone”).
My mother-in-law told us about the Kong Chew Toys, and we found several types at our local PetSmart
. The Kong toys are different from other chew toys – you can put treats inside the toys to keep the dog interested and solving the how-to-get-the-treat puzzle. The toys are durable rubber.
The above dog toy is the famous first style of Kong chew toys. You can either put treats inside or squeeze Kong Stuff Paste inside (think of it like squeezing whipped cream, but it’s liver whip for dogs).
We got the Kong Goodie Bone for Austin, and he loves it. I have tried it with both the Kong snacks and other treats, and he loves to try to get the treats out of the bone. See the ends of the bone – there are holes where you can stick treats. So far he is doing great with the chew toy, but we’ll see if it works when I actually leave him home alone with it.
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Your mil is really gorgeous! & she sure looks happy!
Dee
If I haven’t already told you, the new family pet is so cute!
BTW I left you an award on my blog so don’t forget to stop by and claim it.
Enjoy…
{Make it SHINE in 2009}
He’s too cute! And KONG’s rock. They also carry these bullies (or so I call them) dogs LOVE them. Bull testicles don’t smell good, but like the KONG I guess dogs just like them.
We use peanutbutter in our kong!!! Wake loves it!!
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