Pepper ate my pencil…

Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 3:28 pm

Last week Pepper was a bit quiet. He behaved like he did something wrong and felt so guilty. We did not know why. He was ok about food and walking outside but did not seem to be playful in the house as usual. It might be because I left him in the house by himself more when I worked in the garden. He was fine by himself. I always leave him with something to chew either rawhide, bones or chew toys.

It was my birthday on Thursday. HG cooked dinner for me. It was roast duck with orange sauce (I made the sauce because I am a sauce chef) and roast potatoes. He bought me a HDD/DVD recorder for my birthday. It was so sweet but he could not get it to work yet on my birthday. He was so frustrated and I did not like to see that. Finally he managed to get it to work on Sunday with a little help from someone at the AVForum. We were thrilled.

Thursday night I took Pepper out to do his business after dinner and he was dreadful. We met so many kids and he pulled me towards them like crazy. Some girls screamed and ran away from him when he jerked to them which made him pull more and that hurt my wrist. I was so angry with him. On Friday I planned not to let him off the leash to show him that off the leash was the privilege and he should be grateful for that. I took him out for a walk in the morning, I let him off to do his business but he was interested in eating things in the wood more than doing his business. Then we met Nelson and his owner, Tina. So I walked with them to let Pepper play with Nelson. When we reached the football field I had to take Pepper back to the wood because he did not yet do his business and I did not want him to do it in the football field. He tried to be smart and not let me get hold of him. Tina tried to catch him for me but he would not let her touch him. What a cheeky dog he is. So I ran back to the wood and he came after me. I told him to do his business but he did not and tried to eat things again. This time when I called him he came back with a mouth full of rotting leaves. I had enough. I put him on the leash and halti and walked him to the wood along to the river. He could not pull me because of the halti. I took him down to the river to have some drink. I let him off to do his business when we were on the way back. He did his business immediately and came back to me. I put him back on the leash and gave him 2 biscuits. Then we went back home.

In the afternoon I was doodling when I was on the phone with HG and I left that paper and the pencil on the window ledge where Pepper normally put his head on to look outside. I guessed the paper and the pencil might get in his way so he had to take care of them. I was working in the front garden and came to check on him at the window. I saw his bone lying in the middle of the dinning room. He was under my desk chewing the pencil to bits. I came inside and asked what he was up to. He gave me his innocent look. It was like he said “I did not do anything, I did not know why the pencil was in my mouth” something like that. I cleared up his mess, put him in his crate and went back to work outside. I came back later and he was on his back sleeping.