Wednesday with a vengeance

[altivo]

Let's see. Our dog Red may have eaten a pair of socks again. He did this once before and eventually barfed them back up. I'm not sure whether he ate the socks or not, but Gary's convinced. What I do know is that I walked into the bedroom and caught the dog trying to eat Gary's underwear next (or first) which was in fact prevented. It's weird. He hasn't done anything like this in more than a year, and we have no idea what set it off today.

On the way to work I was delayed a few minutes by an eviction taking place on the street west of the library. Several cop cars, a lot of people standing around staring, and more furniture and clothing piled on the lawn than I would have thought could be fit into the house. Street was blocked for a while.

Then the blood drive. They use the library for their summer vampirism because the church buildings they use for the rest of the year are not air conditioned. That would be all right, except they take over the entire building, and are very noisy and obnoxious. They also make demands of us, rather imperiously. In particular, they are never happy with the temperature in the meeting room they use for drawing the blood. It's always too cold or too warm, and they will demand to have it changed four or five times in the six hours they are there. They were late clearing out, which displaced a board meeting and a book club meeting for which we had to find space.

Tomorrow I'll go in to work late at 4 pm because I've agreed to play Winston the Book Wolf again for a story hour presentation. As long as the weather doesn't get horribly hot, that should be easy fun. Pretend to eat a book, get chased by "mean" librarian (my boss gets to chase me with a broom.) Sneak back in and sit with the kids until the end of the story, when they get to have pictures taken with me if they like, and make a paper sack hand puppet of a wolf.

Comments

[schnee]

That's as weird as it is intriguing. I never knew dogs did this, but a quick web search suggests that it is indeed a known problem with dogs — and that the causes are ultimately unknown (there's speculation that it may be out of boredom or because a dog gets carried away while playing with a sock, but neither of these convinces me).

[altivo]

Thirty years ago, when I first met Gary, he had a very sweet golden retriever named Sasha. Sasha had socks for toys. We used to put one inside the other, tie a knot in the outer one, and give it to her. She played with them until they would fall apart, but never ate one.

The next golden, Tee, shredded the socks. He would hold the knot between his paws and chew and pull at them until they shredded. He did the same to any soft plush dog toy, so we quit giving him those things.

My bearded collie, Simon, learned the same behavior from Tee. Fortunately neither of them ever stole MY toys.

Sarah, the "Polish Elk Hound," did eat socks, but only the toes. She would hunt them down and remove them from uncovered laundry baskets (which I had always used, and I had to switch to a covered hamper.) She chewed the toe off each sock and left the rest lying on the floor.

Red has a history of swallowing large items entire. Apparently wild wolves sometimes eat small animals that way, head first and down they go. That's where we get the terminology "to wolf" one's food, in fact. We know that Red was underfed and hungry at some time in his past, and when we got him we were warned that he would steal unattended food. We had some incidents, as did the woman who provided his foster home until we adopted him. He swallowed an 8 ounce block of cheese on me once. Took it from the kitchen counter and made it vanish whole in just a few seconds. He has done that with wrapped butter (wrapping and all) and large slices of bread, though not for quite a while.

My guess is that it's the same instinct that makes him steal and wolf down food, a behavior that would be useful to a wild canine. I suppose dirty socks somehow seem foodlike. Eeew.

[schnee]

Ah, yes, that sounds quite plausible given his history.

Interesting that Sarah would only chew the toes off socks; I've heard of mice doing that (sometimes, Garfield can be informative after all, at least when you look at strip that are 30+ years old), so why not dogs, too?

Plush toys are one thing I'd be concerned about if I got a dog, yes; I'd rather not have mine nibbled to bits by a well-intended but destructive canine.

And wow, an entire block of wrapped butter? (Or just part of one?)

[altivo]

Butter here usually comes in four quarter pound segments, individually wrapped in waxed paper. It is sold by the pound, but wrapped in four ounce portions. So Red has stolen a four ounce "stick" and swallowed it whole, paper and all. He did this to his foster mom more than once. The butter "stick" is about 2.5 cm square at the end and perhaps 12 cm long or so, certainly not a huge challenge for a large dog to swallow. Red weighs over 50 Kg so I'm not surprised he can gulp that down in a flash.

The cheese he took was Swiss, a solid chunk about twice the size of a butter stick. That's pretty firm and unyielding, but he must have swallowed it entire because he made it completely disappear in just seconds. He has a very large muzzle and maw but I'd have thought that too big for him. About 40 years ago I had a St. Bernard and her mouth was wide enough that she could have done it easily. (Amanda never stole food, though. She just sat and stared at you with her sad eyes until you would give it to her.)

[schnee]

Ah, OK — over here butter is typically sold wrapped in 250 g packets, likely about the size of that hunk of cheese. Yeah, I'm surprised he managed to swallow something THAT size whole, too.

Amanda never stole food, though. She just sat and stared at you with her sad eyes until you would give it to her.

*chuckles* Oh yes, I know that stare. Dogs are surprisingly good at it, aren't they? With some dogs (and owners), you have to wonder who's training who.

I'm still quite amazed that my neighbor's golden retriever never once begged for food or even showed any interest in it at all when we had a barbecue a while ago. Between grilled cheese, meat and sausages, you'd think he would've come running (and drooling), but no — he knew not to.

[hrrunka]

My sisters dogs are terrible at chewing socks and shoes, though whether they actually ingest the bits, I know not...

[altivo]

We've had a couple of dogs who carried shoes around, but I don't think any have actually chewed them up. We also had a weird cat who used to sleep in Gary's shoe when he was a kitten and once he grew too large to fit he would sometimes fall asleep with his head in the shoe. I always attributed these behaviors to smell. Shoes carry a strong scent of the wearer of course.

It can be both amusing and frustrating though to have to hunt for one of your shoes when you're in a hurry to get dressed and go somewhere. Socks, on the other paw, appear to qualify as tasty tidbits. We've had plenty of experience with that, as I've detailed above.

[hrrunka]

My sister says her dogs must like the consistency of flip-flop sole, because they have a look of bliss on their faces when they're chewing them, right up until they get retribution...

A friend has a siamese cat who, given the chance, steals her underwear to make itself a nest. I'd guess that's a scent-related behaviour...

[damnbear.livejournal.com]

I might imagine that Gary has a tasty toejam that Red likes, but the underwear? I suppose if he rolled on it, that would be a canine compliment...

[altivo]

Heh. Red sometimes seems to have "autistic" behaviors. It can be difficult to figure out what motivates him. For instance, he will fetch toys inside the house, but not outdoors. I suppose it might be more like ADHD. In the end, he just doesn't seem to be as bright as the goldens we've had in the past. Labrador genes? Maybe not good for the brain power.

[lhexa]

No matter how nice they make the aides, and how small they make the needles, drawing blood never seems to become less traumatic. :P