Back at it and soft toys

Here Luke shows Elsa how to open a present.  Also note Elsa's very appropriate eye squint as she moves into to give it a try.  This is a submissive behavior.  

Okay, this week we are back at it.  With all the short weeks, Christmas, New Years and festivities life gets pretty crazy at the end of the year, doesn't it?  But now we are back to a full week and life back to the same ole.  We will be heading out for our walk a little later this morning but first I'm off to the gym. This Christmas marked the re-entry of soft toys into our home.  Over a year ago we had baskets full to the brim with soft toys but with the addition of Elsa I had to clean out.  First I cleaned out anything that wasn't in peak condition.

We went from a huge basket full of toys to a half basket and then with further culling we were down to only chew toys.  With a strict eye for supervision it was obvious that Elsa as a six month old was going to rip, tear and eat the stuffing and pieces that came off.  Not every piece but by the looks of her poop she had consumed quite a bit.  So that meant no more soft toys, sad but true.  I headed out to the store regularly to buy new chew, bouncy, rolly/polly type toys.  The two toy baskets that I had looked sad; they now held only a portion of the joy producing toys of the old days.   But like anything else this soon passed.

Elsa doing her best tempting to chase.  

For the last couple of weeks Elsa has been very joyfully been destroying toys.  She takes great pleasure at dropping the toys onto Luke's head so that he will chase her.  Their game is a predictable one but absolutely adorable.  She tempts, he takes the bait then gives her back the toy to tempt him again.  They are very cute together.  So we now have two baskets overflowing with soft toys.  I will be keeping a very close eye on the "stuff" consumption and if Elsa decides to start eating the results of her ripping and tearing then we will be back to only chew toys.  But so far so good.

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last weeks picking up fluff and pieces of toy.  But ripping and tearing is a very natural dog behavior, it is good for them.  So with a bit more cleaning to do and more supervision once again we will all reap the benefits of a soft toy once again; and before long there will only be carcasses left.  Carcasses do not require as much supervision although they are still wonderful for putting onto Luke's head.  :)

As a side note:  if you have a dog that consumes toys; please take extra precautions.  Tiny bits and pieces are one thing, they typically end up in the yard.  But whole toys swallowed down can be life threatening.  Make sure that you teach your dog they are for playing with and not consuming.