But that was more than enough time for the black labrador to try a spot of redecorating, leaving the walls, floors and furniture covered in blue paint.
The naughty pup, one, had knocked a two-litre tin of paint off the kitchen counter and then decided to throw it around the home in Redruth, Cornwall.When Lorna, 29, returned, she was stunned to see Max lying on the sofa surrounded by puddles of paint on the upholstery and inky-looking paw prints traipsed through the house.
The mum-of-three said: ‘I needed to come back in to grab a bin bag and I was met with destruction. I didn’t hear anything while I was in the garden, he was like a silent ninja.’
Seeing the look on Lorna’s face, the dog jumped off the couch, slunk past her and sat outside staring into the garden, refusing to meet her gaze.
She added: ‘He knew he’d done wrong, he looked really guilty, and wouldn’t look at me for the rest of the day.’
‘He kept bringing me his bone as a peace offering. I can laugh about it now.’
Overwhelmed at the sight of Max’s home-makeover, Lorna burst into tears and cried for half an hour. She rang her mum, who is in her Covid support bubble, who rushed over with a super-strength cleaning fluid from her dad’s old cleaning business.INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), pet owners in the United States spent $60.28 billion on their furry friends in 2015. That number is expected to rise by more than $2 billion in 2016.
The pair scooped up the excess paint and then sprayed and vigorously scrubbed at the mess for three-and-a-half hours before miraculously clearing it all up.
They used warm water and a hard brush to clean the sofa and pressure-washed the rug.
Footage shows Lorna documenting the carnage, before the camera settles on a very guilty looking dog gazing out into the garden.
Max has already earned a reputation for destruction after chewing up a Google Nest speaker, Xbox controllers, TV remotes, shoes, pillows.He’s chewed pretty the bed twice along with the kids toys and can now add smashing picture frames to his list.
Lorna said she and her husband Richard, 39, bought the tin of dark navy emulsion paint for a feature wall in their bedroom.Remove pet hair from carpet with a squeegee.
But other things got in the way, and it had been left sitting on the a 3ft tall counter top for six months, somewhere Lorna thought would be out of reach to Max.
She added: ‘He’s counter surfed, knocked it off and opened up the lid. Then he thought it would be great fun to play with and decided to decorate the house for me.
‘He started in the kitchen and doused the fridge-freezer with it, the floor, skidded about in it – I could see paw prints tracking through to the living room – then go towards my patio doors, on the rug and the corner sofa.
exclusive Map reveals how Brazil's Covid variant has spread across Europe‘I really did think it was going to cost an absolute fortune to sort out.’
Since the rescue dog’s artistic turn on February 23, Lorna has booked him in for dog training classes.
The social work student said: ‘He is adorable but he would earn the title of Britain’s most destructive dog.’Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .
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Be realistic. Unrealistic goals will only prevent you from growing. There are two common mistakes a dog owner can make that will slam the brakes hard on any potential progress you might be hoping for. First, the expectations we place on our dogs and ourselves. The misguided belief that your dog “should” be performing or responding at a certain predetermined level. Another mistake many owners make is having unrealistic assumptions. Many of us assume that our dog understands what we want and that he knows what we’re asking of him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, some of us assume that the dogs failure to perform means he’s either rebelling, stubborn, or just plain stupid.
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