Mischievous Pets

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2020

Pets can bring so much love and joy into a household, but sometimes they are downright destructive! I asked some of my fellow military spouse friends here at NAS Lemoore to share their best mischievous pet stories:

Stefanie: It was cold out so I left my dogs inside. They played tug of war with two down feather pillows! I killed two vacuums and found feathers for months!

Kirsten: The picture makes me laugh because my dog really did eat our entire couch-she also ate a mattress. And knocked over her 3-gallon water dish trying to get to a moth inside the bowl. She’s destructive but we love her!

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Lorena: Our dog Loki REALLY liked the neighbors! He and the neighbor’s dog would work together to dig a hole for the little dog to come over. We have a dog door, so we would wake up to a random extra dog sleeping in our bed with the rest of the clan.

Jacqueline: My dog ate my son's first birthday cake RIGHT before guests started arriving for the party. I got some frosting, doctored it up the best I could, and told my close friends that were there to NOT eat the cake and would explain later.

Cidney: My dog ate our ham Thanksgiving Day in 2012! He opened the back door while my husband and I were upstairs and ate half of it.

McKenzie: About a year ago I went plant crazy and decided I needed a million house plants. So I bought 10 plants and had them all planted in separate pots inside my house. I came home one day and my dog Chloe had dug up EVERY PLANT I HAD. The living room carpet was covered in soil and was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever cleaned up.

My dog Bailey, a golden retriever, has NO “full” gauge. Twice we have come home to find he has found a way into his dog food and eaten so much he was sick for days.

Do you have a mischievous pet story? What is the most trouble your pet has caused?

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Pet health insurance is administered by Embrace Pet Insurance Agency, LLC and underwritten by one of the licensed insurers of American Modern Insurance Group, Inc., including American Modern Home Insurance Company d/b/a in CA as American Modern Insurance Company (Lic. No 2222-8), and American Southern Home Insurance Company. Coverage is subject to policy terms, conditions, limitations, exclusions, underwriting, review and approval, and may not be available for all risks or in all states. Rates and discounts vary, are determined by many factors and are subject to change. Wellness rewards are offered as a supplementary benefit to the pet health insurance policy and are not an insurance product. Wellness rewards are offered and administered by Embrace Pet Insurance Agency in the United States. © 2020 American Modern Insurance Group, Inc.

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[Paige24]

To be honest, I guess I don’t understand how people can find this destructive behavior in dogs to be “cute” or endearing... thus why I opt for cats. Sure, they are capable of the occasional mess or accident, but typically the clean-up time takes half an hour at MOST (maybe longer for set-in urine stains or something), with nowhere near the financial setback replacing an entire mattress or couch would be. And I can’t imagine ingesting all of that material to be good for a canine??

I apologize for the word vomit about to happen (but hey, at least I won’t be spewing chunks of mattress or couch cushion filling, right?), and please know that I’m not directing my words at anyone here in particular— merely the dog owner community as a whole in this country. Anyways, so what ever happened to crating or training your dogs? Goodness gracious, like seriously! This country has been on the most bizarre and grotesque dog-worshiping trend for the better part of a decade now... AT LEAST. Dogs USED to be primary owned to serve a purpose (i.e. hunting, fishing, herding, farm duties, etc.), and while this is still the case for some people and there are service dogs and police/military dogs which are a benefit for society, those owners are very much so still a minority.

Today, due to breeding practices with only potential profit figures in mind, several dogs breeds are doomed since birth to suffer serious health issues... for example, the “flat-faced” dogs are extremely prone to respiratory issues, and this is so common that most airlines have banned them due to the risk of liability. It’s so sad. And all because countless Americans want toy-sized, cartoon-looking dogs who they can dote on every hour of every day and raise to be completely and totally dependent on them to the extent of extreme co-dependency and manic/anxiety-ridden behaviors. Ha.

Anyone wonder why so many dogs today seem to lack training and knowledge of the basic commands? Well, the vast majority seem to be raised in an environment which breeds mass amounts of entitlement, causing ill-mannered behaviors such as begging shamelessly for table scraps and completely disregarding personal boundaries of children, people, and other pets. Oh and don’t forget the owners who take their selfishness even further by stuffing their poor pets into very uncomfortable-looking outfits simply for their amusement and to post photos on social media for likes and follows. Disgusting.

I apologize for the rant, I know I veered quite off-topic for the majority of my comment— I just can’t stand it when dog owners fail to properly educate and familiarize themselves with dog ownership and as a result, only perpetuate the completely backwards idea that “eating an entire mattress or sofa” is merely cute and funny, not a clear representation of the owner obviously neglecting to even so much as train their dog that “no, it’s bad to destroy furniture and ingest that horrific amount of raw material...” Like, wouldn’t it take quite some time for a dog to even finish off something that huge? Did the dog not at some point feel pain in their abdomen and stop?? Why, if the dog is capable of such a thing, was it not properly crated if not under supervision? Not that dogs should always be crated while the owner is away, but until the owner steps up and trains their dog to *not* eat mattresses, then I feel like the crate ain’t the worst idea...

ok, end rant.

[ReikiNurse]

Dogs... cats... bah... try parrot mischief...  I'm constantly busy trying to curtail the destruction of the woodwork and my circa 1910 antique furniture... THAT's a challenge.  LOL 

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

Thanks for commenting @ReikiNurse ! I had no idea how destructive parrots were until attending the bird show at my local zoo! They can live into their 50s and poop every 15 minutes!? I can imagine you sure win the long lasting mischievous pet award!