Right before my wife and I head off to work every morning, we shout throughout the house, “day care time!” and suddenly the house is filled with the sound of pounding feet as my Golden Retriever, Alex, and Shepherd/Lab mix, Clarence, come tearing down the hall tails wagging. For the most part, they are both well behaved, but ocassionally they get bored and get into trouble. Since they both want to be in the shop with me when I work in there, we decided to start putting them in the shop while we are at work. There is less to destroy should they get bored.
This weekend, I got nothing done in the shop as I spent the entire day Saturday and much of Sunday, rewiring my table saw and jointer. Alex had managed to chew off the power cord, sever the cord running directly into the motor, and sever the cords running into the power switch. Additionally, he ate the plug off the jointer. Needless to say, he has been bumped off the shop apprentice list for a while until he can recognize the value of shop safety and good machinery. Thank goodness, nothing was plugged in.
The silver lining to all of this is that I have increased my skill level with general wiring. Not only that, I decided to buy some insurance and got some of the green apple spray that repels dogs. I hope this will keep him from being tempted in the future.
I have taken measures to keep all the other power cords up and out of reach so that I don’t have to repeat this exercise with the band saw, lathe, planer, etc. Although, I suppose if he eats the bandsaw cord, it would be a good excuse to upgrade the motor to 1.5 HP.
I hope this will explain the lack of posts here. No one wants to watch electrical work, and I was certainly not in a good mood while doing it. Clarence is pleading his innocence, but I hold him responsible as the big brother for not keeping his little upstart brother in check.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Vic // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Roger,
This might sound a bit abusive, but it worked on one of my dogs that chewed on power cords, hoses, etc.
The next time it happens, show the cord or hose to the dog. Now the part that seems wrong. Wrap the cord
around the dog (carefully so he/she can’t get hung) and make the dog wear it for a few hours. The heavier it is
the better. My girl has never chewed on anything resembling a cord since. Probably saved her life.
2 Vic // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Sorry Shannon, just noticed the name Rogers is the last name….oops.
3 Shannon // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Vic,
I haven’t heard that technique before. I think I may have fixed the issue though. I have actually rewired a machinery to use armored cable. The stuff is flexible enough for my purposes and it allowed me the opportunity to rework some of the switches and add some length to the power cords. I have now done my jointer, table saw, and band saw. Everything else can be stored away. Thanks for stopping by.
4 Vic // Jun 10, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Well, it was out of desperation to keep my compulsive obsessive dog from killing herself. Thank God it worked!
Our dogs are our babies, as we don’t have actual children. Two of them have a crush on Clarence, by the way:D
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