Toilet Swimming
Lyra has taken up a new sport. It’s called “Swimming In the Toilet”.
It works like this. (Keep in mind there is some conjecture here, since I’ve never actually witnessed this).
Lyra takes a bone and sits down for a chew. Then she waits until I’m distracted, at which time she takes the bone to the bathroom and drops it into the toilet. Next, she attempts to remove the bone from the toilet, digging violently in the bowl until she has removed all of the water from the bowl and covered the floor with it. She leaves the bone for me to remove at a later time.
Lyra is not the first dog in my house to take up a toilet sport. When Juno was young she also thought it was great fun to remove the water from the toilet; the key difference is that Juno screams when she does it, so I can come running and prevent the full catastrophe. Lyra is silent.
Lyra’s addition of the toy to the bowl is pure genius, since my kids are not likely to pay any attention and next thing we’ll have a plumber at the house to remove the bone and whatever else gets stuck with it. I can’t wait.
I could close the toilet seat. This action would prevent the toilet swimming and I would no longer be mopping the floor on a daily basis, however…. I also have human children. I have been pleased to see these children lift the toilet seat in recent months rather than peeing indiscriminately all over the place. Closing the toilet lid upon completion of bathroom activity is probably asking too much now that they have just learned to open it.
Lyra has another favored activity. She climbs on top of the bookcase to pull down my son’s stuffies. I’m not completely sure how she does this, but I know that I have been carefully putting the stuffies up, and then ten minutes later they are down again. A few days ago I got a glimpse of her methods when I saw her stretched between the back of a couch (which is she is not allowed on) and a middle shelf on the bookcase. It has crossed my mind that we may not be far from finding stuffies in the toilet. My human child will not be pleased.
If I catch Lyra toilet swimming, we will have a discussion. It will not be motivational.
17 comments
Just when I thought you had the perfect dog, you confirm it :-) What great ingenuity! I’d like to have a front-row seat for that non-motivational discussion, and I’d like to be inside her head to hear what she thinks of it.
I have no advice. Phoenix has spent the last 5 1/2 years dropping balls in the big water bowl in the kitchen and digging them out. TG it’s just me and my husband, our toilet lid is firmly put down after each use. That would be a whole new wonderland. Thanks for the laughs.
Lmao too. I am now totally in love with Lyra. Didn’t you tell me a Spritepup would find something to do if they were bored? It sounds vastly amusing to me, and such a smart girl to be quiet and not get caught. Maybe she just wants to go swimming. I don’t know exactly what stuffies are, but I do wonder if the hamster still lives with you?
That is HILARIOUS Denise!!!! So glad you shared it!
I have observed puppies stepping into the water bowl and digging at the water, and adult dogs that are prone to “digging” in their water bowl to splash the water all over the place. A few of the digging dogs will then lie in the resulting puddle. I interpret the behavior as means of cooling down on hot days. Digging at the water get their tummy wet, with a nice cooling effect. This being a recent behavior for her and the hot weather we’ve had recently seems to support the theory. Did you notice whether Lyra has drinking water available during this episodes? Even if she does, the toilet water might be cooler then the water bowl, so she may choose it over the water bowl, then when she gets there, she drops the bone into the toilet so she can drink, get’s distracted by or tired from the digging/swimming activity, and neglects to pick the bone up. It’s also possible that the bottom of the toilet is too narrow for her to pick the bone up when she’s done.
You may want to weight the mess resulting from giving her access to an indoor kiddy pool, vs the plumbing cost and mess of a clogged toilet :(