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.
All my young dogs have loved the drop-item-into-water game. I have a very large stainless steel water bowl on the back porch when I have a young dog who wants to do this. Then they can play this game with a ball or toy outside where there’s no mess to clean up. When played outside, they sometimes get themselves all worked up into a session of the zoomies. It’s really amusing. I get a real kick out of it.
As for the stuffed toys, I would say it would be safest and easiest to just put them completely away and out of site just for the time being – perhaps in a closet. It won’t be long until all this adolescent stuff is over and you can have all the toys out again without some big mishap or expensive vet bill.
After rescuing six adolescent dogs during my life, I’ve found that the easiest thing is simply to employ the “out of sight out of mind” training method for a little while. It’s all over before you know it and you’ll completely forget that you had to ever put anything away and out of sight from your young dog. Well, that is, until you get your next pup!
That is HILARIOUS Denise!!!! So glad you shared it!
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?
Kylie is a complete water dog…I have to chain up her water bucket in her kennel or she will be a thirsty dog when I get home from work. I had to spend a considerable amount of money to completely fence in my pond to keep her from swimming 24/7. Any garbage can, kiddie swimming pool, feed pans etc. That have water in it she’s either jumping up to tip it over or grabbing it with her teeth. Then she bites and laps at the moving water. I don’t need to mention that living in the Pacific Northwest things fill up with water pretty consisently. :)