I love to raise puppies. I love the lessons they share with us. Swagger decided this morning’s activities would include a wee bit decorating and made me think if he could talk… he would say: “I can do recalls from anything, do amazing tricks, tug in the presence of great food rewards BUT . . . just remember, I am still a 6 months old puppy so I will also toilet paper your room if I get the chance. 🙂 ”
John and I were chatting at breakfast and we both kind of said at the same time; “where is the puppy, he is awfully quiet.” This is what we found…
“Who me? No really I just found all of this stuff here . . . maybe talk to Buzz about it.”
“See, I just had to get rid of all this stuff so I could bring your the roll!”
I won’t share this bit with John but I think I brought this on. You see when I was a kid our toy poodle used to LOVE to play fetch with the empty toilet paper roll. Every puppy since then I have, at one time or another, I have played with the empty toilet paper roll before I throw it out.
So on his own figured out how the “quick release” toilet paper roll holder works (aaaah there is no “release” you can just push it off) and wanted to start the game of fetch but needed to first remove all of that annoying paper that was covering the roll.
Not exactly a “puppy proof” toilet paper roll holder is it?
This all put me to mind to a Friday night when I was living in residence at university. A few of us went out for a drink, it was during mid-term exams so we left some of the others in the dorm to “study.” Â One of my floor mates, Barb, decided it wasn’t cool to be left behind so she climbed through the open dormer at the top of the door into my room and not only turned the mattresses upside down, not only toilet papered the room, but left a note to explain why.
Barb, very proud of her handy work . . . I never did find out how her morning mid-term went:).
Faking disdain, a bubble blowing Susan in awe of Barb’s handy work.
Today I am grateful for entertaining puppies who make us laugh and bring back old memories. Shhhhhh no one mention anything about the retrieving of the empty roll to John okay?
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My dog will do this. She did it as a puppy way before I ever gave her the cardboard roll.
I now keep the toilet paper on the window sill where she can’t reach it.
Bizarrely the emergency roll inside a plastic bag is perfectly safe on a platform right under the original roll holder, which is an easy roll removal hook like SG’s.
And she’s graduated to stealing kleenex out of my pocket when I’m trying to type on the computer. Sigh.
I love it. I too have a 6 month old pup (red border collie/aussie cross). He has finally trained me to put away any loose rolls, or they will be shredded. One day he grabbed the roll and ran out the room with it streaming behind him. It was funny. He has a thing for blankets too, and likes to destuff them, given the opportunity. Ah well, I have so much to learn.
Hi Susan,
Your story really brought back fun memories of Uni life. I bet you had a real tidy room at college and that’s why it got TP’d! My room got reverse TP’d. I got home one night and my friends had cleaned it up to give me a shock. They’d even vacuumed and cleaned the surfaces. I did take the hint and try to keep it like that for a little while (I can’t really remember for how long). I also have a photo somewhere of my unusually tidy room.Thanks for sharing.
Lisa
@Lisa aaaah “real tidy” yeah lets go with that . . . NOT!
I had a 8 month old pup do this with about a dozen balls of nice expensive yarn. He did it during the night while we were sleeping. Some noise – I don’t know what – woke me up and I realized he wasn’t on his bed next to me. I went exploring and found a yarn mess spider webbed around the furniture. And him. So, … I guess he wasn’t ready to sleep outside of his crate yet. ;>
I have had 2 such experiences, once from a man who had nothing better to do than tp my apartment while I was having the day from hell at work. I came home to tp wrapped around my kitchen, furniture, bed, pillow, and later discovered every piece of underwear, stockings, slips, pjs.. the bathroom. After my day, I didn’t find it at all funny and gave him 5 minutes to clear the mess. Poor beggar!
The second was kleenex. I was just going back to work after 3 months off because of surgery and during that time, 2 puppies came home. I was leaving them in my large kitchen .. easy to clean messes, and I had taken out a box of 400 sheet box of kleenex, and left it on the table in the kitchen; it was a round table with a tablecloth on it.
I came home, having to rush to get some food into me and put the puppies in the car to go to their second puppy class. I could smell something foul when I got home, and figured there would be a mess to clean up, but I had no idea what I was walking into… I guess I had given them a little too much milk the night before… they had got the box off the table somehow, and shredded all 400 sheets and the box, and there were brown islands dotting the now fluffy white landscape that was my kitchen… and there were bits of kleenex stuck to them because they had been playing hardy all day. I had to clean them, and the kitchen and get them in the car and go… so much for eating.
Despite that, and eating a 649 ticket that might have been a winner.. because the 14 million dollar ticket was sold in Ottawa and never claimed……. No wonder I beat them! LOL
My one year old pup — today is his birthday! — is the only one of my dogs to take that toilet paper and run throught the house with it! I laughed and laughed at him! Amazingly, with that kind of reinforcement, he only did it once!
I have a cat that has “extra toes” that resemble “hands” who will catch the empty roll almost every time you throw it! (His name is Piggy and he is VERY naughty!)
Our first Cairn never outgrew her love for paper products. A paper napkin on your lap was never safe from Button. Bathroom doors were kept closed. On walks, I had to watch for discarded tissues. One time, when my aunt came to visit us in our new home, my husband served her a strawberry daquiri. She placed the drink on a paper napkin on the white carpet. Button reacted faster than I did and pulled the napkin out from under the glass, running away as the daquiri soaked into the carpet. Button has been gone for 10 years. I will always be grateful for the lessons she taught me about the Cairn spirit.
What is it with dogs (not just puppies) and TP rolls?? My sheltie would grab the end of the roll and walk all through the house with it, thereby t-p-ing everything in her wake! My Chin will dig through piles of recycling to get at the empty roll we’ve tried to hide in the bottom of the bin. I bet they think they are playing a huge joke on us (and they are!)
Dear Swagger,
There is an even BETTER roll in the kitchen!!! It’s hidden under some paper towels, but they are not very difficult to remove. Not only is this roll longer and better, but it can make funny noises when you bring it to a person. Definitely check it out!! 🙂
— Vikka
Well what do you expect when you have spent since birth teaching him to be smart?!?!?!
He used his intuitive skills perfectly!!! A +++ Master Swagger man!
Love the old uni pics! lol
I LOVE the pictures especially because they capture the sheer joy of being a puppy with toilet paper! 🙂
When my oldest JRT (now 10) was just a wee babydog I had the exact same happening… only our toilet paper holder was puppy proof, so there was just a long string of toilet paper going through the bathroom, down the hall, around the living room… it was hysterical. When she was 8 weeks old. I couldn’t ever bring myself to “correct” the paper or tissue shredding behavior and still find it funny to this day that she takes absolute pleasure in shredding things.
… unfortunately, as a product of my training, I know I also can’t be angry when she pulls those tempting things out of the trash to “recycle them” for me either. Haha.
Oh my! This reminds of an ugly tofu and toilet paper incident with my Dane puppy years ago. By the looks of my living room and kitchen she had herself one fun party. lol! Good to know Swag’s a “normal” puppy! lol!
The dunny roll is a prized toy in my household!!
You want an independent thinker right? 🙂
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all find joy so easily as unrolling TP? I guess we need to be teenagers again. P.S. My mini-poodle loves the game also.
hahahah that is too funny and to think you have an oldtime school escapade to go along with it. ohhhh Swagger. LOL Thnaks for the giggles tonite.
Love it, Puppies will be puppies….I have 2 dogs that are 1 and 3 that both love TP and Kleenex, I have learned not to leave the box on my nightstand…
Very entertaining- but I have to comment, “Love the hair”, Susan!
My 8 year old standard poodle loves a TP party so much that we have not been able to keep our toilet paper on the holder – ever. It’s just up on the counter…if we forget we come home to a mountain of TP and NO ROLL AT ALL because she eats that part.
Thank you for sharing your ‘failures’ as well as successes. It makes your pphenomenal acheivements seem more accessible to the rest of us.
… and this is partly the reason my toilet paper holder is mounted about 5 feet off the floor.
The other part of the reason is cats.
This is that kind of situation where you don’t wanna show the puppy(or the child) they made you laugh because you don’t want to encourage that, so you would back up behind the wall, giggle, turn back in and clean up the mess.
Just so funny…
We humans would rip feather blankets every other weekend if it wouldn’t just be something you just don’t do, because its such a mess and blankets are expensive. Sure we’d have the same fun swagger had. just some paper + swagger bringing up a lot of smiles on our faces…
Thanks for sharing!
This is so great because so many people think that if a dog is well trained he will not still be a pup. Thank you so much for this post.
p.s. Oh, those bubble gum blowing days… awesome! :o}
Doesn’t this make you keep all this training in perspective, Susan? These are the moments you have those belly laughs..what a release of joy!
That is way too funny. I have an aussie that shares Swagger’s B-day and he just discovered the toilet paper on Saturday at the hotel! Luckily I was standing right there to prevent what happened to you! Those little red devil’s 😉
I have a 4 yr old Westie and the same toilet paper holder. She has been stealing the rolls since she was a puppy and to this day goes in to bathroom and checks to see if someone has forgot and put the toilet paper on it and if they have it is shredded.She always thinks she is being quiet about it as well. Oh well what else would I do without her entertaining us once in awhile 🙂
What a good boy to stay on his mat to chew the roll! 😉
During a difficult day away this truly made me smile and think of my own pupper’s at home and the innocence they have…..nothing seems as fun as a toilet paper roll.
I’m trying to shape my dogs to pick up paper that I throw at the recycle bin and miss. I want them to put it in the recycle bin for me. My BC thinks it’s much more fun to grab the paper, race in the living room and tear it to shreds. I knew the risk I was taking during shaping. It’s just too funny!
I think we’ve all had those moments where they start to look and act like big dogs, so we forget they still have puppy brains. My whippet reminded me at 6 months by decorating with a roll of paper towels. I was just extremely pleased it wasn’t the remote or my husbands shoes.
Hey Susan,
I have the perfect training method for that problem! You tightly roll up a newspaper and…… hit YOURSELF over the head saying: I did not watch the puppy, I did not watch the puppy!
I have 2 standard poodles, the youngest Teaghan is about 18 months old. I have the same slide off tp holder that you have, unless I remember to put the toilet paper in the closed cabinet, she’ll tp my living room, my deck, my backyard…whatever’s handy. Their doggie door goes *right by* the tp holder, so she’ll just grab an end on her way out.
I love it!, Great start to the morning!
I am LOVING this! LOL Didn’t you say that foundation training begins in the Loo?….and to think of the money I”ve spent on expensive retrieval/tug toys.
Thanks Susan and Swagger for sharing! I can’t get enough of “puppy stuff”!
Hahaha! Brilliant! BOTH stories 😉
Susan, that is called designing and redecorating!
This is a carpet with special effects, can’t you see??
One clever puppy 🙂
It’s so funny I think everyone has had that experience of “hey, it’s too quiet…where’s the puppy?”
I miss that little man, he definitely is Mr. Personality.
Hee hee! What a good Swag-man, staying on his bed even while surrounded by toilet paper distractions . . . thanks for sharing this fun!
Ha! That made me smile! I love dogs being dogs for dogs sake! I have a 4 year old Aussie who loves the “roll”. Occasionally she can be seen standing and staring at the roll on the wall, but if she hears you preparing to replace a roll she knows exactly what comes next! How great that Swagger got that all ready for you!!