A dog owner who left her German shepherd puppy home alone for five hours has shared a video of the shocking aftermath that greeted her upon her return.
Dora, who lives in the U.K., and posts to TikTok under the handle dorathexplora02, took to the platform to share a glimpse of the chaos she encountered after returning home from work to see her 5-month-old puppy, Rolo.
Dora said she and her partner had been talking about getting a dog about a year before they did. “We never actioned it until Rolo’s advert popped up online,” she told Newsweek.
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“He was listed along with a few other golden shepherd puppies. So we went to view but then ended up coming home with him. The rest is history.”
Rolo has wasted little time in endearing himself to Dora and her partner with his all-action outlook on life. “Rolo loves running after balls, eating grass and chewing his yak chew,” she said. “He’s so full of character and is intrigued by everything he loves sniffing and exploring.”
That’s just as well, given the damage done during a recent stint home alone while Dora and her partner were at work.
Looking after a puppy is a lot of work. A survey of 2,000 dog owners conducted by OnePoll on behalf of pet insurance company Bought by Many found that 30 percent considered the first two years of caring for a dog to be the hardest. In fact, 17 percent of those polled said it was even harder than raising a baby.
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Dora isn’t making any such claim, but it’s clear she has her work cut out for her, if what happened on the day this video was filmed is anything to go by.
Things had started normally enough.
“I took Rolo on a 20-minute walk in the morning, and he had a little run around the field nearby us,” she said. “Then I took him and left him in the kitchen with his toys and some extra food and headed to work.”
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Dora had her father come over to her house to check on him at around 2 p.m. That was when she received a series of photos detailing the extent of the damage Rolo had done to the kitchen in their absence.
“He sent me a photo of the kitchen with the lino torn up, the wood and concrete covering the pipes all chewed up, as well as a bit of the wood surrounding the pipes,” Dora said. “He also completely shredded his puppy pad and had jumped up and chewed the washing sponge.”
TikTok/@dorathexplora02
Dora’s video captures the scene, with the room appearing completely trashed while Rolo can be seen happily tucking into his dinner in the corner, evidently nonplussed about what he had done.
Thankfully, despite how things appeared in the clip, putting the room back together was a straightforward enough task, Dora said. She’s also taken steps to avoid a repeat.
“I’ve replaced the floor, so it’s like it never happened, and instead started putting him in the bathroom when we leave,” she said. “He’s got loads of toys, toys with food inside, a couple of my T-shirts, and I leave music on when we leave, and it’s working well so far.”
Though it may have been stressful at the time, Dora felt compelled to film the room and share the video on social media. It’s helped her get some much-needed tips on how to avoid similar incidents in the future.
“Further down the line, I’ll look back on the video and remember what Rolo did as a puppy, and it’ll be one of those memories you look back on and laugh,” she said.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
