When he was a puppy we kept him gated in the kitchen. On the very first day our bright mini Aussie puppy figured out he could squeeze through a hole in the corner of the gate. Great. We ended up having to stuff the corners with my free weights so he couldn't wiggle through. Then a few months later he figured out he could scramble over the gate. Great. That would leave him on the side of the gate without the pee pad for the entire day. You can probably imagine the fun cleanups Papa had then.
After that point we decided to take the gate down and give Dash free roam of the living room and kitchen area. Back then Dash couldn't hold it for 8 hours and there was no one to let him out mid-day if we crated him, so we decided against it. As this blog has shown, we have had many learning experiences with the power of our mini Aussie's chewing abilities. My friends sometimes make fun of the toilet paper snow days we had when I forgot to close the bathroom door. Ugh. (Check them out here and here.)
One of Dash's "long term projects" has been the vertical blinds in the living room. On warm days we leave the window on the left side open. The first time Dash chewed on the blinds I thought it might be because they were flapping in the wind and blocking his view outside. Then we started pushing the blinds all the way open so there were no obstructions... Still, he kept chewing. Little by little. Obviously.
