Daily Imperfection: My Little Menace

Today's daily imperfection has been bubbling around in my mind for the past few weeks as I have watch my beloved puppy darling chew, bite, scratch, and eat everything he can lately. I'm going about this a little backwards as I was planning on have a profile entry for Beans, my 8 month old Italian Greyhound puppy. I'd love to paint him in a positive light, but he is officially what I call a teenager for dogs! The first few months of owning him were pure joy as he learned new commands well and was always a cuddly companion. Well, all of that has officially changed!

I'm not really sure where it all started, but his new nickname is now "my little menace." My little menace has managed to eat a five inch square patch of carpet, chew off the plastic ends of most my shoelaces, shred anything paper in sight that he can get to before me, chew the wall (paint coming off and metal exposed and all), and chew up his cute toy basket. He also loves to pull out anything he can grab from the laundry baskets (usually just socks) and chew pens or highlighters. The other day, he got a pen (that I have no idea where he got it from?) while I was out and apparently had a party with it on my bed, which left pen marks all over my new queen size fleece blanket. Oh, Beans.

The damage, which can barely be seen in this pic.
 But still! Poor glasses :( 

Today's offense? I go for a quick run and leave him for no more than 30 minutes. I see him sitting in the sun like usual when I get home. All his toys sit perfectly untouched in his toy basket like I left them. He seems peaceful, as if he was sleeping the whole time.  I greet him and say in my best puppy talk voice, "Were you a good puppy?!" and proceed to give him a treat for being good while I was gone. Then I sit down at my desk and at my feet, he's chewing on my reading glasses. For a second I hoped he has just found them. Oh, no. He found them 30 minutes ago to entertain himself while I was out. The entire left lens and right ear piece are chewed and scratched. So much for all those toys I buy him!

Beans on the Subway

Clearly, things could be worse. But now that it's to the point that I have to remove things from my coffee table (where the glasses were when I left), it's getting tedious. I already sweep through my entire apartment before I leave to check for tissues, things on the floor, etc. and I close off any areas he shouldn't get to. I don't keep him crated while I'm away though because I felt he had grown past that. He was doing really well with being left out because I have him puppy pad trained. So I never have to worry about getting back to let him out or accidents. He's been accident free for months now, unless I leave him in the crate too long (and then it's my fault). It's just so much easier to leave him out, and he is much happier and less hyper too. I may resort back to the crating though, if just for short trips...

Despite the glasses, I am still called to love him and my heart is so big for this little guy. He is my companion all day long. Somehow, I am able to look past the chewed glasses, carpet pieces all over, my chewed up Bible verse cards, and other lovely presents he leaves me and just look in his eyes and love him. There's just no sense in being mad at such a cute creature, right?

What has your dog done to your stuff? Did you still love him afterwards?