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I’ve hosted plenty of dogs, even three at a time, mostly large dogs. This is my first instance of any kind of dog damage.
I estimate this dog to be about 8 pounds–a really tiny dog. i could have held this dog in one hand.
I repaired the damage myself using sand paper, high quality DAP vinyl spackle, and artist’s oil paints. Sometimes those painting classes come in handy.
It looks good but of course it’s not as smooth as the original, and I might need to replace the whole trim piece eventually. I asked the guests for $75 to cover my time and they sent it without issue.
These guests had 0 reviews. I normally don’t accept such guests but I made an exception. I am not doing that again.
Of course it’s the human’s fault, not the dog’s. But this shows that small dogs are not necessarily any less destructive that large dogs.
P.S.: This is chewing, not scratching. The door withstands scratching really well, it’s fiberglas.
You’re right, it’s trim, but structural is the only reasonable option the AirBnB menu gave me for describing the damage. I can’t remember what the other options were, but they were things like furniture and linens.
I am suffering with a puppy right now that some a**hole must have dumped off near my house. It looks like it is part chihuahua, but bigger than that and probably will be a smallish dog when full grown. In just a few days it has chewed up my phone charger cord, ripped up a roll of toilet paper, chewed on my carpet, and I have had to rearrange my whole house because it leaps up on everything and pulls things down. This in spite of me giving it things to play with. It’s really fast and hyper.
Granted, it’s a puppy, but I’ve had large breed puppies before and they’ve never acted like this. Thank heavens I am passing it off tomorrow to someone who has agreed to foster it until a permanent home can be found.
I’ll take a large breed dog over a small one any day.
Even though @Brian_R170 is technically correct, the damage was done to part of the “door structure” as I see it. So I don’t see that as necessarily incorrect.
I had a fox terrier (also small) and he used to chew the molding on the walls and doors. I’m so sorry this happened to you. The guests are lucky that you were able to do the repairs, costing them only $75.
I’m not an expert but I have had 3-400 different dogs here as part of my dog boarding business. I haven’t found much usefulness in stereotyping dogs based on breed or size. If I had to choose one breed that’s caused me the most problems it’s Golden Retrievers. The one dog that caused damage in my Airbnb was a German Shepherd.
Yes they could easily beat up my Yorkie & Pom mix (8lbs each).
@SleepingCoyote This damage is definitely on the owner. They didn’t crate him & left him alone. I’m sorry. This is what gives all dogs a bad reputation for damage.
and yet this is exactly what is done on those “which dog breed is right for me”. I find it amusing we actually say that one breed is “better with kids” than another.
oh now that is interesting! we have some rather horrid neighbours in our estate who have 2 Goldies and they are really awful, vicious dogs and I was astounded the first time I encountered them. I figured the owners must be the most awful, toxic humans to have turned such normally nice dogs into monsters, (and they are toxic gossip mongers and all sorts of nasty), but your comment here is very interesting.
And I think as you run a dog boarding business you ARE an expert! Although granted, a boarding situation is not “normal” so dog behaviour is likely to be somewhat unusual.
Since it’s an in home boarding situation instead of a kennel with rows of cages, dogs can’t be monsters here. A dog can be dog aversive but they can’t be dog aggressive. And dogs that develop a territorial sense here and become problems will removed from my client list. At least one of the GRs was sweet enough but his owner had personal drama she tried to make me part of and her young dog tore up too many things (digging, chewing). Another one who is still a client accidentally bit a dog (a nervous reaction that grazed a fragile chihuhua’s thin skull) and that cost me a lot of money.
I had a childhood friend who had a sweet Golden, loved to play and run and catch. But man, that dog could chew a golf ball into a pile of tiny shreds in about a half hour.
at one point we had 5 dogs, and they were increasingly difficult to control as a pack (Ridgies are loyal but not necessarily obedient, it’s better to tire them out instead). I can’t imagine the dynamic of so many dog breeds in a home share, but mad respect because there’s a lot of skill in that situation.
The point isn’t how many breeds or even the number of dogs (I mostly max out at 10-14 and not all the time, just holidays). It’s the temperament of the dogs and any breed can have any temperament. Yes there are breed characteristics but in my business I treat dogs as individuals. But I can. An Airbnb host doesn’t have any control over the dog so I understand why they fall back on breed stereotypes.
My Dad bought my sis a Chi Cocker mix, the black and tan tiny Angus. Before he could destroy everything left in the house he had not already destroyed he had to stay in the bathroom. he almost got through that solid wood door, (which was never repaired…
