A Doggie Proof Christmas

Lately Mr. L and I have been giving Dakota little trust tests to see how she behaves with a little freedom while we are not at home. We feel guilty crating her all day when we crate her at night to sleep. To our surprise things WERE (as in past tense) going very well.


I started out just leaving her for an hour while I went to the gym and slowly built up to leaving her for 6 hours on the day after Thanksgiving while I went shopping with all the rest of the crazies at Kenwood Mall. Each time we were pleasantly surprised to find A.) No potty mess and B.) No torn up stuff. That has since changed ever since we decided to decorate for Christmas.

Last Wednesday night we finally lugged all the stuff up from the basement to start decorating. We were pretty encouraged because Dakota didn't seem to be interested in what we were doing, let alone the rearranged furniture or the new tree that stood in our family room. We ended up being pretty efficient and got everything done in one night. The next morning came and against my better judgment, Mr. L convinced me that Dakota would be fine out of the crate and she wouldn't bother any of the decorations. My gut feeling was that we hadn't been there to observe her with the decorations up yet to know whether or not she's leave them alone while we were gone... but I complied.

All morning at I work I sat there and thought up all sorts of scenarios that I might come home to at lunch- the tree would be knocked over, all the ornaments would be broken, she would try to eat an ornament and choke, and the list goes on. By the time noon rolled around I was in my car and flying home (I don't normally break the law while driving but I thought pushing the limit just a little was ok in this potential emergency situation.) I screeched into the driveway, put the garage door up and ran to the door. As soon as I opened the door, there she was to greet me, tail wagging and all. Relief #1- she was not dead and had not choked on something or injured herself. I turned the corner to check on the status of our tree and...there was stuff all over the floor! As Matt said, she turned our family room into Dakota's funhouse. Let me give you a run down of the damage:


Chewed ornament #1- homemade cube with Matt's initial made by his Great-Grandmother
Chewed ornament #2- Matt's little football
Chewed ornament #3- homemade Cov Cath golf bag (are we seeing a theme here??) Apparently while decorating the tree I put all of my ornaments at the top.

The rest of the damage consisted of a chewed up umbrella, shoe, cord of the mini blinds, and door knob Santa (see photo- she chewed off his nose and tassel.)Last but not least a plastic ball ornament of which I couldn't find a small piece of. One small freak out and call to the vet later I was assured that she should be fine.

So...now that we have been through all that, we have a doggie proofed house. Our Christmas tree is looking a little "Charlie Brown-ish" with ornaments hanging only from the top half and our stockings are flipped up during the day. We have also been putting our ottoman upside down in the chair next to the Christmas tree to prevent her from getting the ornaments at the top. I guess some decorations are better than none and it still gets me in the Christmas spirit when I sit in there! Silly pup.

The Before (note stockings) And the After