Monday, November 3, 2014

Monday Mischief: Project Sadie


Whew, it's Monday.  What a weekend! All my pictures would be of me sleeping, so I thought some "throwback" pictures would be kind of fun. :)

Post-bath hyena run, with my tire toy in my mouth.
Puppy Sadie, ready for destruction!
Now here we are, Monday- lately, since Kaiser has left our roost, I have been a little off-kilter.  I was SO happy to have a little buddy that lived with me.  Now I'm stuck with my little kitty siblings, and they aren't really fond of playing with me.  Alas, I have been causing some mischief.  During the 5 1/2 hours Mom is gone, I get a lot accomplished- I ate another stair's worth of carpet and padding, I left the contents of my bladder on the carpet, and shredded some newspaper and stuffies all over the carpet.  Mom was NOT amused.

I get rewarded for playing with appropriate toys!
Mom is pretty disappointed when I do this, but Dad?  He really is not amused.  They have been thinking of some solutions to curb my problems.  Dad suggested that I get crated for the day while both of them are gone at work.  This works for many, many people, but  Mom feels bad that I have to spend 5 1/2 hours in a crate, so she got creative and came up with this plan:

Naughty naughty!
Operation Sadie.

Purpose: To get me to stop my behaviors when home by myself.

The plan:
  1. As Mom leaves (she's the last one to go), I get a Kong with peanut butter slathered on the inside.  This teaches me that good things come, even if I am apart from my humans!
  2. I now have a soft radio playing in the background.  Mom thinks this will help to have some white noise, therefore keeping my brain from going crazy!
  3. The landing/basement have been baby-gated so I can't even touch the stairs.  That way, the stairs aren't even an option.  I have plenty to do upstairs.  Mom and Dad are going to eventually cover the stairs/upper level with nice laminate flooring, but that involves $$, as you know.
  4. All bedroom doors are shut, and the bathroom mats are hung up on the shower rod.  I have been known to shred a few memory foam bath mats, so now that they're out of my reach, I can't even go there. *sigh*
Me, surrounded by my good toys!
So far, this has worked for 3 days.  Think this might work long-haul?  What are your suggestions for curbing the mischief to an appropriate level? :)

Mission accomplished!  A tired doggie!

12 comments:

  1. You are just like Bailie, so happy with your mischief! We have no suggestions as Bailie is just like you! Katie and I never were naughty when Mom was gone. We were done with the kennel at 10 months, but some of you just enjoy the bad dog thing I guess. Hopefully you and Bailie will grow out of it!

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    1. I love causing mischief- I always do it with a smile on my face. Luckily, Project Sadie has been working thusfar. I'm hoping I can keep this up- hopefully Bailie can follow the good girl trend, too! :)

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    1. There's never a dull moment around here- Boss always has some sort of camera on her! You can't make up most of the stuff that happens around here, so there has to be some sort of proof! :)

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    1. I do my best to keep things crazy around here! I think the kitties started it though- my kitty brother, Thor, is a VERY busy bee, licking all the blankets and making holes. He even licked through Mom and Dad's flannel sheets! :(

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  4. You sure are a mischievous one! I used to get put in my toy-filled playpen in an empty, closed room when I was home alone. Sometimes I would climb out and push my pen around. That was when we first moved into our house and didn't have stuff everywhere, though.

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    1. That sounds really nice! We used to have a room like that, but then Mom and Dad decided that they were going to rip the wall down to make a larger room in the basement. Dog room > people room, the humans just don't get it! ;-)

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  5. You have lots of energy to get into mischief. Maybe a morning walk or game of fetch will help. I adopted my Golden Retriever when he was 9 years old so he was well past the mischief stage.

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    1. We have now implemented 15-30 minutes of fetch in the yard in the morning, which works out well, as well as an evening walk if we can squeeze it in (or more fetch)! Operation Sadie is working! :)

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  6. Sadie, I can't be left alone. I'm a rescue and my hoomans don't know why but I go CRAZY!! I've been known to eat those baby gates! Maybe that'll be my next monday mischief. Now I go to grandpa and grandma doggie day care every day, sometimes even on the weekend.... At least I get to play and hang with uncle Teddy. Shasta

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    1. Eating baby gates?! Holy moly! You must have jaws of steel! I wish my grandma or grandpa could doggy day care me- that would be so much fun.

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