Who's the naughty one?

I had bought some new fleece pullovers for dogs and had put the bag they were in up on a shelf. Well Chima loves floppy fabric and is notorious for nosing around on those shelves where I keep foster dog things. She's grabbed collars and tote bags before but this time it happened to be a $35 fleece.

So did Chima do something wrong? Nope. She doesn't really know what passes for chewable and not chewable in the human world and since she loves "killing" floppy fabric things, why would she pass up the bright orange floppy bag with soft floppy things inside of it? And why would I put the bag on the shelf in the first place, knowing that in the past Chima has gotten into things there.

If a dog is going to learn where the good things are that they can chew, it's important to set them up for success. Keep all the things you don't want them to mouth up at a safe height. Keep lots of dog toys at their level that are way more interesting than things on shelves.

So I kind of had a face-palm moment and realized that all of the toys in the basket (and there are a lot of them) are tough rubber or plastic fairly indestructible toys. While Chima will play with those, she really prefers something fabric that she can really shake and throw and eventually rip up a bit. So I got down a stuffing free hedgehog for her and was treated to about 20 minutes of the most hilarious play session. Both her and Salinas loved the beat up, headless hedgehog and thought it was the best toy ever.

Chima with headless hedgehog

Then there was a game of tug that was too fast paced to get a non-blurry photo of

Sadly, Mr. Hedgehog lost his butt in that tug battle

Salinas had the toy and Chima did her effective creepin' move where she invades a dogs personal space, sometimes to the point of standing there with her nose touching their face, and waiting until they decide to put the toy down. It isn't threatening in any way to the other dog - her body language is loose and relaxed and if the other dog growls she will back off and stand a bit further away, waiting her turn. 

When I run out old Skinneeez toys then I have a lot of partnerless socks in the laundry basket that I can braid and tie into knots for them to play with. As long as I make sure to set the girls up for a happy play time my tote bags and coats and magazines will be fairly safe.