However, he manages to find ways to release this energy when he's at home. A few weeks ago I kept finding little brown pieces of some unidentifiable object laying on the floor. It would be 1 or 2 pieces every few days - totally random. I searched around the baseboards, the legs of our sofa/table/chairs, and I couldn't find the source of these chewed up fragments. One day, when some friends were over, Lindsay found 2 more brown pieces of something - she asked what they went to and I still had NO CLUE what they were. She looked around and discovered they were coming from our floor lamp. No, not the bottom of the lamp like a normal spot for a dog to chew - right in the middle, which means he would lay on the chair and hang his head over the edge to snack on the lamp. Seriously?
I usually leave Mulligan out in the mornings - it's a risk with all the trouble he is known to get into, but after watching him on weekends and when I've worked from home - this is when he seems to be sleeping the most (aka the least likely time to destroy something.) I go home for lunch several days a week and take him out, let him fetch some of his toys to exert some energy and then put him in the crate for the rest of the day. It's not a quick drive from Alpharetta to Dunwoody but it's worth it for him to not be pinned up all day. I think I'm going to die on days when I don't leave the office for lunch- can you even imagine being in a crate all day?
John Neal works too far away to come by the house at lunch, but occasionally he has the opportunity with trips or meetings out of the office. This Wednesday I was excited to know he'd be out getting his flu shot and could go by at lunch and let him out. He calls my afterwards and says "I le
ft him out." Since he says it with some sort of giddiness in his voice, naturally I think he's kidding. He wasn't. It was noon and neither of us would be home until at least 6:30. Mulligan is a mouthy dog - he will chew on anything...I know that, John Neal knows that, probably anyone who knows us knows that. So why in the world would he leave him out for 6-7 hours? Freedom. He hated to put him back in the crate so he decided we should see if we can trust him. I love our dog, but I know he cannot be trusted. Just so you know, I wasn't trying to be Super-Mom, but merely out of concern for the destruction of our house and the safety of Mully, I drove home. Come on - I wasn't about to let him stay out for the rest of the day with kitchen table chairs, recliners, and door casings dangling in front of him for an afternoon snack. So of course I found him sitting in the kitchen looking sweet. But wait for it....not too far away were some wood shavings on the ground. Right above it, a window sill that was missing it's corner. Oh, Mully....
Which brings me to why I love doggie daycare. We started talking our little rascal in August and could not love it more. The owner, Colleen, is great with the dogs and does so much to make the owners feel like their dogs will be loved while they are at work. Not to mention they play in an indoor/outdoor facility with 20-30 other dogs and are flat out exhausted when they leave. I try and take him on Wednesday's because he'll usually sleep into the weekend after he's gone to daycare. All that playing with dogs for a full 10 hours will knock our little guy out. Colleen usually jokes that he gets dirtier than any other dog there...and it's true. We give him a bath after every daycare visit because he no longer looks creamy colored - but brown. One time I honestly didn't even know it was him. Ha.
Despite his tendencies to give Marley a run for his money as a wild and crazy dog - he's our little buddy and we love him!
i LOVE it! so hilarious! and oh how we love our dogs!
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