Socks do get STUCK!!! 6 week UPDATE

Well, we are 6 weeks out from our viligent observation and training of Bella's sock fetish and I have to report she has been passing with flying colors!!! We have set her up repeatedly to try to catch her and time after time, she just looks at the sock, sometimes sniffs very quickly, and walks away. She doesnt usually know we are watching, and I have taken to leaving the clean clothes in the laundry basket again when we aren't home and DH and I have all matching pairs of socks with every load.

We are thrilled and we have progressed now into training to include not eating tissue out of the waste baskets in the guest bathrooms. I am doing the same training, rewarding her when she stops a few feet from the basket so that she doesn;t even get close enough to inhale one before I get to her.

So, she's doing well in the sock department, however, has taken to counter surfing. Geez, I guess training is never really done!!!

I think everyone pretty much knows my Bella has a fetish for all things NON-food, but socks, little pairs of grandson's socks in particular, are by far her favorite snack.

The pair usually pass pretty easily, quickly and without much fanfare.

Except today. No, nothing needing going to the Vet for. Just some minor assistance from me. Ofcourse, where is DH when you need him?

Bella was outside for quite awhile this morning. She is allowed out by herself when I have secured the area of lingering poops, as I just had earlier. After 20 minutes or so, I decided she'd been out enough and went to call her and found her dragging her little but on the brick pavers. Something she never has done before.

FIrst thought....anal glands, darn! Nah, she poops like a horse, can't be!!! Well, upon closer examination, I see a pretty good sized poopy bundle hanging from her bottom, with the visable signs of sock in the package. She shook, rolled, swung her hips, layed down to try to pull it out herself, but it was STUCK!!! Oh dear. Dr Mom to the rescue. However there are no nurses hand gloves in close proximity! What's a mom to do? Gotta get this out for her before she starts rolling all over in it! Not to mention, the poor look on her face was just screaming "Help me Mommy!"

I grab a towel, reach down and pull! And pull, and pull and about 18 inches later, out comes the whole deal!

Now I ask you, is this something that can be classified as going Above and Beyond the call of Doodle mommy Duty?

Sorry, no pictures, and aren't you glad???

So we are a week into training Bella to "Leave" socks alone and I think yesterday she validated just how smart she is. During the day of doing laundry, there were no less than 3 times that a sock had fallen on the floor unattended by us.

One in the laundry room, that I know I had not been in since I emptied the dryer several hours beforehand and she had been in and out of several times. When I saw the sock still there, I casually called her to me, ignored the sock to see what she would do. She did walk over to it and stayed about a foot away, stopped, looked up and then walked away!!! I didn't say a word to stop her but praised her up and down.

She did this in the bedroom also with DH's socks later in the day when she acknowledged them on the floor, but stayed about a foot away and turned and left the room. That would NEVER have happened a week ago and I have to say, we really only practiced this maybe for 3 days. I still don't trust her 100% nor will I knowingly leave socks down yet, but this is a big improvement and I guess a habit that can be trained out of them. Thought you'd all like to know!

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Permalink Reply by Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty on November 24, 2011 at 7:30pm

I'm actually having a somewhat similar issue with Sophie. She doesn't eat socks, she just wants to play with them, carries them around in her mouth, chews a bit, and what not. Just like she used to do with her stuffies. I got mad at her because a few times I came home to find my socks destroyed, all ripped up with holes. Good pairs too, not the old crummy ones that already had holes in the toe. nope, Sophie likes the $25 smart wool socks. Her and Winston played tug with them. I was mad at Sophie because I know she instigated the whole thing. I started crating her again when I'm not home. How silly that it only just now dawned on me that she is all of sudden going after my socks, and yesterday a shoe, because Winston has destroyed all her toys and there's nothing left to play with :( poor baby. I don't know what to do (apart from maybe tidy up my room a bit and put the shoes in the closet where they belong). I hate crating her as it's not really her fault. but at least in the crate she can have her last stuffie, froggy, to play with.

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Permalink Reply by Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*() on November 24, 2011 at 8:08pm

Bella not only eats the socks, but destroys all of Murphys toys too, so poor poor Murph. I do think a lot of the time I probably could have avoided her finding socks, but there's no guarantee I could ever keep them away from her 100 percent so I think training is going to be best for both of us.

The shoe issue is a bigger problem I'd think. Bella has never eaten shoes, but I was just picking up around the house this morning and thought about beig more careful with shoes just in case she attacks them when she no longer wants socks to munch on.

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Permalink Reply by Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*() on December 4, 2011 at 6:53am

Thought you'd all like to see the results of Bella's Sock Training.

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Permalink Reply by Ricki and Tara (doodle) on December 4, 2011 at 12:56pm

You guys are doing great, Sue!! Pretty soon socks will be one less thing you have to worry about!!

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Permalink Reply by Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*() on December 4, 2011 at 6:20pm

Thanks Ricki, with all the dogs being sick now with tummy issues, I feel like we dodged an inevitable bullet with this training. We still are super careful with socks , but it sure felt good watching her walk away from them yesterday. I could hardly believe it myself. But I am so grateful she is getting it so easily.

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Permalink Reply by Ricki and Tara (doodle) on December 4, 2011 at 6:23pm

She's a SMART girl! I know that feeling you get when they make the right choice and you can't believe it!! I've had that happen with Tara and the "leave it" command several times! She just walked away from the "leave it" object and I was thinking "Wow! She really DID it!!"