Advice needed - do I pay for my dog's mistake?

[slipslider]

My puppy has a liking for bags, pockets and anything like socks etc. After numerous trips/calls to the vets after swallowing.chewing undesirables I now warn all guests to put things out of his reach including handbags. It is an ongoing joke with my friends about how he is and the things he has chewed - batteries, paracetamol, face cream etc so far. Anyway one friend this morning did not heed this advice...she stayed at my house last night and left her handbag within reach of the dog in her bedroom...when she went to the bathroom he picked out her glasses and chewed them to pieces. Now I am torn as what to do. As a decent person I know it is my dog's fault and therefore as a responsible owner I should foot the bill but on the other hand, this person is well aware and has been told on numerous occasions to keep things out of the reach of his mouth! Do I pay for a new pair? Do I offer a token gesture amount or do I expect her to pay for the new glasses? Any advice would be welcomed!

Your dog, your responsibility.

If you cannot supervise your dog full time, you need to contain him somehow. Yes, it restricts his freedom, but some of the things you say he had been chewing on could easily kill him.

If your guests are unable to follow simple instructions designed to keep your dog safe, then I suggest you stop having such feckless guests.

Sorry, I missed that post.

Okay, if she encouraged the dog into her room and then left her bag around for him to investigate, it was probably more her own fault than yours.

It's difficult to say how much though.

Btw I'm sure you realise now but batteries can and will kill children, and probably dogs, within an hour if swallowed. Especially the little flat cell ones like you get in some toys.

As previously stated...the house was made safe when it became a problem...the dog got the batteries from the tv remote which he got from a drawer under the telly, the dog got cream from a cupboard and he got paracetamol from my zipped and poppered handbag. All within a short timeframe. It was previously thought they were in a safe place being in cupboards/bags but when this occurred everything was changed (safety catches on all cupboards and bags out of reach). And there is a stair gate on the kitchen door.

I actually disagree with the majority on here. If I visited a friend's house, and was clearly warned that her dog would chew my handbag or stuff in it, if I left it within reach, and I didn't put the handbag out of the dog's reach, then I would accept that any consequences were my own silly fault! Especially if I had invited the dog into my bedroom to sleep.

I would also second (third, fourth?) using a puppy cage - we had one for our lab puppy who was a devil for chewing when she was little, and she went in it at night and during the day if we were going out. In between times, she often went to it to sleep - it was tucked away under the stairs, and I think it was a secure space for her, that she enjoyed using. We never put her in there as a punishment for bad behaviour - we didn't want it to become somewhere with negative connotations - and so it carried on being her safe space right up until she was over 2 years old (though by that stage, we had moved on to a bigger cage, of course). Now her bed is under the stairs where her cage used to be - to give her that same secure feeling.

And the chewing does stop eventually!

The only thing that this thread has really cemented in my mind is that I will never, ever get a puppy!

Ohhh it is worth it, many, many times over, FiveMonths! Admittedly I am not, and never have been, terribly house-proud, nor do we have lots of valuable furniture (no antiques, plenty of IKEA ), so she never chewed anything irreplaceable - and the one time she did get my glasses, she just mangled the arm a bit, and the opticians mended them for me.

Fivemonths...ha ha! He is not a monkey all the time! We just spent a lovely time down by the river with a frizbee having fun this morning...it is more often than not good times!

I think you should reconsider crates. You say that I refuse to have a crate as I believe that it is cruel to keep an animal in such a confined space in order to control it Dogs can do much more harm to themselves if they are chewers and free to roam. More dogs will have been killed from eating dangerous items (Paracetomol and batteries makes my blood run cold) or need surgery to remove contents from their stomachs. The incident with your friend shows that it is hard to be 100% vigilant.

Crating also teaches your dog to settle, which in turn will break down the vicious cycle of nothing to do so I will chew. If chewing is a stress response (as it often is) then a crated dog is usually a calm dog.

Crates have to be used correctly and dogs need to be trained to use them.

So if you have been out for a long walk and fed your dog then the dog should and needs to relax, pop the dog into the crate you sit down have a coffee.

Obviously do not use a crate for punishment, or for long periods of time but it is ideal for when you need a shower or are unable to give your dog 100% of your time.

I would replace the glasses for my friend with out question.

Given that this is a friend, yes, you need to offer to pay for the glasses. (She ought to refuse your offer, frankly, she had been warned.)

From now on, though, I would urge day visitors (I know she was overnight) to put all their belongings in a really secure location - a child-locked cupboard? - until the pup is trained. Then no more mishaps with other people's stuff.

This puppy sounds really anxious. I echo everyone that has suggested a crate. He will feel secure during the night and you can relax knowing he isn't eating tin foil.
You do need to pay for your friend's glasses, albeit grudgingly as she ignored your advice.
How old is it?

Thank you for your response...this pup has never seen anxious unfortunately. He doesn't even look up when I nip out anywhere....and when I come back he's not moved (I have used the motion detector app on my mac to see what he gets up to out of curiosity) lol...i think he is just an opportunist! He's only 10 months so still very young.

you could maybe ask your friend if she has insurance on her glasses, if she does then just pay her excess for her.

Look, you've caused this behavioural issue by refusing to use a crate. There's no way a 10 month old pup should be wandering around the house, who knows what he will chew next?

Seriously, you need to get over this belief that crates (closed ones) are oppressive, the pup needs to be contained until he can be trusted not to chew/play with things.

I do understand that you are in the process of training him, but every time he finds something and gains pleasure from chewing it, that behaviour is reinforced in his mind - you need to prevent it happening in the first place so that the behaviour does not become ingrained (if it does, you will have a terrible time trying to train it out of him). At present, you are just setting him, and yourself up to fail.

This time it has been expensive and annoying, next time it might be a live wire which will be the tragic end of him (happened to a neighbour of mine about 6 weeks ago - whole household devastated)

So, yes, you should pay for the glasses.

you could maybe ask your friend if she has insurance on her glasses, if she does then just pay her excess for her.

Why should the friend have to incur higher premiums because of OP's mistake?

Why doesn't the adult who left her glasses within the reach of a puppy that she'd been clearly warned was a chewer, and who invited the puppy into an area he's not normally allowed in(the spare room) have any responsibility for what happened to her glasses?

Yes, you pay up for a new pair or the money for her to get new ones. It is your dog that did it, and you are responsible for your dog.

cake if it is the insurance from the opticians (like my mum has) then the premium doesn't go up no matter how many times you claim (my mum claims regularly as she has parkinsons and often falls over resulting in broken glasses, even did it at my house once and the branch here replaced them for her there and then)

Obviously don't ask her to claim on her house insurance as this would push the premium up I agree

I doubt the adult realised quite how devious the dog is (i thouht mine was bad, but this one is impressive!!) and assumed that stuff in her bag was safe. SAying that i do feel sorry for the OP, id be horrified if ihad to pay for the glasses as i woudlnt be able to afford it, but i would find the money if i had to, id feel responsible. I would hope that my friend would be understanding.

slipslider you dont say what has transpired, did you offer to pay? What did your friend say? Does she have a spare pair or is she currently feeling her way around?

Everyone has different training methods, im very about crate training but it does seem to work very well so who am i to judge. I have seen training methods come and go, but usually find because every dog is different, the training changes, it doesn't have to be prescriptive. I am on my sixth dog now and every one of them have been different and trained differently. I had two rotties before and "dominance theory" was all the rage, well, all i can say is "good luck with that" when training 10 stone of muscle! We found our own way and i was so proud of my boys (didnt have them at the same time) First dog never put a foot wrong, second had isshooos big time, he was a rescue and we paid out ££££s on dog behaviourists, both of whom spouted bollocks, and we just managed, he ended up being a lovely lovely dog. I now have two JRTs, they are not formally "trained" the way i trained my rotties, just day to day stuff, no training in the back garden etc etc - terriers, and small so easier to "do". We never had a crate for the rotties, never had a basket either - i didn't want rottie #2 to have anywhere that was "his" as he was a kennel guarder (we are talking DEMENTED) when in a kennel (and the car incidentally - i never forget him acctually having my head in my mouth a la lion one day becaues i dared to get into HIS car, very scary - so we solved it by always making sure he got in the car last - awkward, but it worked). He would have become very distressed if we crate trained him. He was also possessive of his things, i wasn't about to make a bed a no go area! I think JRT2 would be ok with crate training, but his "big brother" wasn't crate trained so would be weird having one dog crate trained the other not. I see its value, but am willing to bet a new training fad will be along soon.

SDTG I do get your point, but dog owners get such a bad name when their dogs do something like this. I believe very passionately that the dog owner should bear all the costs that arise from their dog's bad behaviour - it is, at the end of the day, the owner's fault for not better training their dog.

Don't get me wrong, I don't wish to sound 'holier than though'; in his early off lead career, my dog managed to snaffle an entire picnic from a family on the beach.

Despite having little sympathy for them (setting up a picnic complete with rotisserie chicken on the 'dog friendly' section of the beach) I still paid for the entire family to have lunch at a beachside cafe. It was my fault, and anyway, its just the polite and courteous thing to do.

As a slight side issue, I will also say that if you cannot afford to pay for the collateral damage that your dog causes (and they will all cause it at some point) then you should seriously consider whether dog ownership is right for you.

stressed does not equal anxious which is the assumption you are making about your dog.
Stressed equals bored, unstimulated, teething, too much energy, inability to relax which in your dogs case is resolved by chewing.

thou bloody autocorrect

Actually I used the word anxious. But in fact Cuebill you're right. I meant stressed - used the wrong word.

But your dog swooping down on strangers in a public place and eating their picnic (which I think is the owners fault)is not at all the same thing as a puppy in it's own home chewing something the owner of the thing had been told to keep out of his reach.

At what point are adults meant to be responsible for their behaviour then? I'm sure the friend is fed up that her glasses are destroyed,but SHE left her bag where the dog could get it and she seems to have been responsible for him being there.
The child analogy would be that I also think a grandparent who lets a toddler play with their glasses would also be responsible if the glasses got broken,not the parent.

It's not the same thing. A grandmother giving the glasses is not the same as a dog scavenging through a bag.

I suspect the OP is a big softie who isn't very good at saying no.