Zoe the Destroyer

Zoe is a shredder. She thinks every toy is meant to be torn into small pieces. Undoubtedly this is a habit she developed from years trying to entertain herself in the backyard. It is going to difficult, if not impossible, to change.

I Googled "indestructible dog toys" and learned that there are other owners whose dogs shred toys. Some are Labs, but there were a disproportionate number of pit bulls. Judging from the postings of these owners, there are no indestructible toys. Rather, the quality of a toy is judged by how long it lasts, and we are talking about days, not weeks or months. If it takes several days to destroy a toy, that toy is deemed successful, presumably because it kept the dog occupied (and not destroying other, more valuable things) for more than a few minutes.

Dog toys are already expensive, and when your dog rips them to pieces in a matter of days, toy costs can really add up. Nonetheless, yesterday afternoon I decided to take all three dogs to Petco (no, they were not good in the store, but whatever) to get some new toys. I got a Kong Wubba, which is a Kong chew toy wrapped in canvas with some octopus-like tentacles hanging from it, plus a canvas ring, a flat canvas person-shaped toy and some squeaky tennis balls.

Twelve hours later, the tennis balls are the only things still intact -- and that's only because I haven't taken them out of their sack yet. Yes, she rips up tennis balls, too.

At the end of most evenings, the living room is littered with stuffing and pieces of innocent plush toys. Here are last night's sweepings:



Here is what's left of the canvas ring:



And the Wubba, a couple of hours after we got home:



Breaking this habit of hers is going to take some time and persistence. In the meantime, she has to stay outside or crated when no one is home. If she were allowed free reign while we were gone, I am confident that we would come home to two shredded sofas.

Zoe

Zoe is my current foster. We have had her for two weeks. She is 6 years old and spent her entire life in her owner's backyard in Long Beach. The only exception was that when the weather was bad, she was allowed to sleep in a crate in the garage. She was turned over to rescue because she barked at rats in the backyard all night and jumped on the owner's 4-year-old son.

She came to us unhousebroken with no idea how to act in a home environment. During her backyard years, she developed a habit of violently shredding her toys to expend energy. Left to her own devices, she will shred anything, including clothes. She bit a hole into our couch. (Leather Magic repair kit -- check.) So we have to keep her in a crate when we're not here.

Despite a lifetime of solitary confinement, she is friendly with people and other dogs. Didi, my 7-year-old yellow Lab, and Matix, my 4-year-old mini wirehaired Dachshund, love her. However, she has developed the unfortunate habit of barking when she is excited, which is often. It is loud -- and not a desirable trait in any dog. To make her stop, Chris and I have had to issue a series of forceful "scruffs" -- grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and forcing her to lie down on her side until she relaxes. It's not fun, but it's necessary. Most adoptive families will not want a dog that barks too much.

We had a 70-minute walk tonight. The other two dogs came home totally spent, but Zoe still had plenty left. She spent about an hour trying to persuade Didi and Matix to play with her. It's about 7 p.m. and she's resting now. That's a huge improvement from our first week, when her nightly "hyper" periods would last four to five hours.

That's the thing I've learned after six months and three rescues: Dogs can change. In fact, they can change a lot. Zoe's barking, a habit developed over years of boredom and frustration, is diminishing. She is essentially housebroken. And she now HATES being outside. I tried to put her and Didi out to play tonight and she couldn't wait to get back in. What must her life been like before?