Free Louie!

Our dog Louie is about six months old now and I must say that he is a fatty. Typically male french bulldogs top out at about 25 lbs maximum (females are much smaller). Louie is only six months old and he's already 21 lbs. We aren't over feeding him (we only feed him two cups of kibble a day), nor do we let him graze throughout the day (he finishes his food promptly). We don't give him many treats, I just think he's big for his age. Husky, big boned call it what you will, LOL.

Anyway, he is outgrowing the crate we first got him and our dog walkers started to notice. "Why don't you take him out of the crate during the day?" they would write in their dogwalker log. (I was getting this vision of our dog walkers wearing "Free Louie" t-shirts, in the same vein as the Jersey Shore "Free Snooki" shirts.) Not wanting to be bad "pet parents" we decided to think it over.  Hmmm...he was getting a little squished in the crate and he seems pretty well-behaved, so why don't we give it a shot?  As a test, my sister and I went out for a run.  We let Louie out of his crate and closed the door to the living room. A little over an hour later we returned and found him sitting there happily. No accidents or damage to be seen.

After that successful test run, Justin and I decided to leave him out of crate for a day...and boy do we regret it.

Yes, that is our coffee table and yes, he has gnawed each corner down beyond recognition. He also chewed the wooden handle to the La-Z-Boy. No wooden object was safe from his wrath.

In conclusion the "Free Louie" saga is over and he is staying in the crate. No "ifs," "ands," or "buts." We're just going to buy him a bigger crate so disasters like this don't happen again.