When the kids recently messed up a Wii game belonging to their oldest brother, each child contributed $5 towards a new game, and my dh and I paid for the rest. Unfortunately, the game is broken again. As a result, my oldest is keeping the Wii stuff in his room, and only bringing it out at parties for the rest of the kids.

I try to involve the kids in cleaning up the mishaps as much as possible. We’re also emphasizing taking care of our possessions more, and cleaning up toys on a more regular basis.

It might break off and force him to come back for repeated attempts and if you’re lucky he’ll loose interest, but beware one object of fun will very quickly be replaced by a new interest.

I have a Chiweenie puppy who is now 6 months old and was the worse chewer I have ever had. It was a real challenge keeping him focused on what is “allowable” for him to chew on, but before we got to that point he chewed up my computer speaker wires and almost got through an electrical cord. That probably would have solved the chewing problem, but I would hate to loose him.

You can see him on his very own Facebook page Joey Chiweenie. The pictures are from when we first got him this past Spring.

Anyway he did learn not to chew on wires after a very stern talking too. But then an idle mouth on a puppy is kind of like an idle mind in a child so he just moved on to the next object.

He managed to eat out the bottom of my relatively new Queen size box spring mattress, then on too my house shoes. I should have seen that one coming because I am sure it must be in the “How to be a good puppy” manual.

These days I have Joey fairly well broken of the unacceptable chewing and credit it to giving him plenty of raw hide chews. He will sit and chew all day long if I let him. Just be careful with the type you buy and how far you let them get with chewing the chew down to too small a size. Some dogs will swallow objects just like a baby and child and choke.

The first thought that came to mind is the old tried and true remedy for TP flying off the roll:

Take the toilet roll and step on it to flatten it out. Then put it on the roller. It makes it just a little less prone to spin off the roller. Kinda of spoils the fun just a little and hopefully they (pets or kids) will find other fun activities to occupy their little minds.

Another option is to remove all TP from the room and the next time they need a little TP you can seize upon the moment as a “teaching opportunity”.

Note 1: this works on some kids, but pets seem not to care in the least.

Tip: It is important that if this is to be an effective teaching method that you remove all objects that could be substituted for TP, including your wash clothes and hand towels (leave the bowl brush for the truly adventureous and industrious members of the household).