Tug of War

Yesterday, Marley had her annual vet appointment. She's healthy, but 8 pounds overweight, so we decided to cut back from 3 cups of food/day to only two. This morning, she let me know that she was still hungry by grabbing a cardboard box and ripping it to shreds. I gave her tough love though by I scolding her and not giving in to her whimpers for more food. We'll see how long it takes her to adjust.

Last night after Marley's vet appointment, Eric and I went to PetSmart to buy food, treats and a toy for my not-so-little terror. We can't buy her stuffed animals because she rips them apart and then eats them, we can't buy her plastic toys because she breaks them apart and eats them and we can't buy her tennis balls because once again she eats them. So we have to resort to the more expensive Kong-brand dog toys that take an extra long time for her to destroy.

Last night, we decided on getting her a tug of war contraption. The concept is that she grabs one end, we grab the other and we wrestle, which would give her more exercise and help her shed some of those unwanted pounds. The problem is that Marley can't comprehend the game. She just wants to chew on it. And while I am so glad that obedience school is starting to pay off, Marley no longer understands the game of tug of war. When we get our end of the toy, Marley instantly drops her end. Eric even tried putting his end in his mouth so that she could visualize the concept of the game... gross. It took more than 20 minutes before Marley finally understood that it was ok to play with the toy by tugging on her end while I held on for dear life on my end. It was short-lived, however, Marley walked away within 5 minutes of the game starting and went back to chewing on it. We'll practice again tonight.