Free reign of house...how old?

freddie is 5 months and has being left some of the time in the kithen by himself and he sleep in the kitchen at night in his basket it is puppy friendly and he is doing brill has not destoryed anything so far!!

My ma started this while i was on hols and he is doing alot better!

Bruce H said:

....The one thing we really worry about is the dogs chewing on cords plugged into electrical receptacles, even when we are home. We can replace furniture, but we can't replace a dog that is electrocuted. Quite some time ago we replaced all the outlets that we plug cords into with GFI's. Makes me feel a little better, but I still can't help but think what if the GFI doesn't work like it's supposed to?

Click to expand...

What's GFI?

As Maxx has never been a chewer, except for when he was losing his baby teeth & has never been naughty in the house in any way I gave him free reign from about 6mths. But then he is the exception.

I am home most of the time anyway and wherever I am, then the boys are too (can't even go for a wee alone :roll: :lol: ). If I am going out for the day then either someone is home with them or they come with me/us. It doesn't really give them chance to do much damage !

However, when I had my GSD I had to shut her in the kitchen/utility whenever I went out or she would find some naughtiness to get into or something to chew. She was like an overgrown puppy until we lost her at 5 - if she ever got upstairs she'd destroy the bedding and shredded more than one duvet when my eldest left his door open :roll: I think we had to replace everything in the house as she ate her way through it all and we tried everything to stop her. The messiest was definitely a huge bean bag though - I came home from the shops to find polystyrene beads stuck to the ceiling :yikes :lol:

i had a puppy once long ago (Frank) who chewed through electrical wires during her chewing phase, more than once. she wrecked the stereo for example.

what i never understood was, why didn't she get shocked? she chewed through to the wires.

we also were overly optimistic (nice word for dumb) enough to leave a jigsaw puzzle in progress within her reach.

When Molly was about 4 months old, I stepped outside for about 10 minutes. When I cam back in, there sat Molly with a couple of carpet threads hanging from her mouth. :sl*p: I immediately knew what she had done. (In front of the couch a week or so prior I had spilt some milk, but had used vinegar/water and my carpet shampooer to get it out).

Anywho Molly had pulled the carpet threads out down to the carpet backing, leaving a appox. 3"x4" hole :yikes

Fortunately I was able to cut a piece out of a remnant and glue it in to this day my dh doesn't know that it even happened

Needless to say that was the last time Molly was left alone.

She's almost two now and we crate her if we are leaving the house.

GFI stands for Ground Fault Interrupter.

It's that electrical outlet that most houses have at least in the bathroom with the test and reset buttons. I don't recall all the details, but it's designed to keep a person from getting electrocuted if they touch a bare wire. Supposedly, if you touch wires from a cord plugged into a GFI, all you feel is a very slight tingle for a split second before it trips and shuts off the power to the outlet. Some day I'm going to try it to see if that's really true.

It used to be only required in bathrooms, but it's now required for outside and garage outlets and any outlet within a certain number of feet of a sink such as a kitchen sink.

Judy: that's really strange that you had a puppy chew through a cord and not get shocked. Although I suppose she might have been shocked and it didn't hurt her. Can't tell you how many times I've been zapped over the years.

Although my wife Kris may say it would tend to explain a few things :lol: