New Dog and speaker wire

[LotusFool]

We are getting a new dog this Saturday. I have experienced the new-dog trauma in the past. The last new-dog we got chewed the power cord to my Mc225 amp. The other day I was looking at the rig thinking what would be the chewing targets on the rig for the new-dog when she is alone in the house. My MIT Shotgun speaker wires seemed like a very logical target.
So yesterday I replaced the MIT's with lamp cord. After a few weeks the dog should be fine, and I'll put the MIT's back in place. I'm only writing this because there still seem to be controversy whether wires make any difference in sound quality.

Even the wife asked me, "what's wrong with the stereo, it sounds like shit". It really did. The sound was so "thin". So if you ever wonder does all that expensive speaker wire and IC's make any difference, just try going back to Radio shack stuff and you will know instantly.

 

[trinhsman]

I agree that cables can and do make a difference. My wife has heard it too. However, to allay the discourse that will now come forth, I am also just as happy to have any of my audiophile friends make their cables out of old coat hangers if they wish. I just don't want to use them in my system.
Good luck with the new dog.

 

[dosmalo]

Aww! Looks like such a sweet puppy! Make sure she has her own toys to chew on.

 

[62vauxhall]

Good looking dog.

When I've read about power cords getting chewed, I always thought that shock's gotta hurt!

 

[donprice]

Now we are getting to the real question. Do boutique power cords and interconnects taste better than the budget offerings?

 

[LotusFool]

Now we are getting to the real question. Do boutique power cords and interconnects taste better than the budget offerings?

Now you are getting to the meat of the conversation!

BTW my MC225 does not have an on /off switch. You either plug it into the wall to turn it on, or pull it out for off. So it was not connected to power when the dog chewed it up.

 

[bobschneider]

My 10 month old puppy chewed through the power cord to a lamp over the weekend - while the lamp was on. How she survived that I don't know, but she did. After repairing the cord, I rubbed it down with "Yuck", a bitter tasting liquid made to keep dogs from chewing on stuff. I did the same to the speaker cables in the same room, although she hasn't shown any interest in those - yet!

 

[noogies]

We've had a dozen dogs through our household in the last 25 years and we've never caught any of them chewing on speaker leads or interconnects. My guess is that your earlier experience was an anomaly and if you keep the new girl fairly well exercised, there shouldn't be a problem. She doesn't look like a pup so there shouldn't be any teething issues, but make sure you have lots of chew toys and don't leave her alone for too long until you get to know her habits.

 

[teal'c]

keep the new girl fairly well exercised.

Passed out pups don't cause many problems. Snoring and gas, that's about it.

 

[goodolpg]

My 10 month old puppy chewed through the power cord to a lamp over the weekend - while the lamp was on. How she survived that I don't know, but she did. After repairing the cord, I rubbed it down with "Yuck", a bitter tasting liquid made to keep dogs from chewing on stuff. I did the same to the speaker cables in the same room, although she hasn't shown any interest in those - yet!

I had a cat that chewed on speaker wires, some hot sauce smeared on the crappy/cheap/nothing I cared about wires ( I don't recommend this for "good" wires) put a stop to it.

A few years later hot sauce stopped a wood pecker that was pecking on a tree right next to my house.

 

[Ross6860]

We've had a dozen dogs through our household in the last 25 years and we've never caught any of them chewing on speaker leads or interconnects. My guess is that your earlier experience was an anomaly and if you keep the new girl fairly well exercised, there shouldn't be a problem. She doesn't look like a pup so there shouldn't be any teething issues, but make sure you have lots of chew toys and don't leave her alone for too long until you get to know her habits.

We have had the opposite experience. Both cats and dogs. They appear to be drawn to wire and cable.

They all lived.

I've also lost three remotes in the last six months. Thank you Ebay. I never thought I would get another remote for my old CD player.

The black thing below is the most recent guilty party. He's a little bigger than that now....

This is obviously their couch.

 

[darkblue94]

We have had the opposite experience. Both cats and dogs. They appear to be drawn to wire and cable.

They all lived.

I've also lost three remotes in the last six months. Thank you Ebay. I never thought I would get another remote for my old CD player.

The black thing below is the most recent guilty party. He's a little bigger than that now....

This is obviously their couch.

View attachment 1417156

Let's see some more of the Boston Terrior.

 

[LotusFool]

We have had the opposite experience. Both cats and dogs. They appear to be drawn to wire and cable.

They all lived.

I've also lost three remotes in the last six months. Thank you Ebay. I never thought I would get another remote for my old CD player.

The black thing below is the most recent guilty party. He's a little bigger than that now....

This is obviously their couch.

View attachment 1417156

 

[LotusFool]

I'm sure it was just an unavoidable accident. How could you forgive that innocent face.

 

[Dr Tinear]

I've never had a problem with dogs and wires. Pet rabbits, on the other hand, will not leave any exposed wire or cable un-gnawed. The last rabbit we owned munched on power cords and didn't even give the practice up after biting into a live antenna rotator power cord and getting an electric shock.

My wife wants to get another pet rabbit, but she didn't like the proposal I had to keep my speakers connected to the receiver that drives them. I agreed to adopt another rabbit as long as I could replace any gnawed-upon speaker cables with a pair costing twice as much as the previous pair, with the cost borne by the family's general budget instead of my meager upgrade fund. When I noted that it would probably take less than a year to go from zip cord to $1000 per pair boutique cables, she stopped nagging me about getting a rabbit.

 

[teal'c]

A few years later hot sauce stopped a wood pecker that was pecking on a tree right next to my house.

Wasn't the hot part, birds like spicy. Vinegar based maybe?

 

[goodolpg]

Yes, water, chili peppers, vinegar, were the first three ingredients for the wood pecker sauce.
It was a different hot sauce for the cat, not sure what it was made with.

 

[Schurkey]

I've never had a problem with dogs and wires. Pet rabbits, on the other hand, will not leave any exposed wire or cable un-gnawed.

Damned right.

I had to route all my power cords and speaker cables inside PVC tubing. Mostly the PVC was hidden, the little bit that was exposed looked tacky...but better than leaving the cables in the open.

One day, Mr. Bunny died. The PVC is no longer used.

 

[sqlsavior]

Be sure to place your PVC conduit on cable risers!

 

[a_retent]

Yeah,
<<<That little turd in the picture there got the vacuum cleaner cord, power supply for my laptop and a couple of wooden kitchen chair legs all in the course of just a week when he was 18-20 weeks old. And it all happened on Mama's watch.

That was many moons ago and he never did it again. I gave him a piece of a deer shed to play with then took it away and put it up when he stopped playing with it. I kept that routine up for several weeks and it worked, no further damage. The only thing he regularly chews on now are my leather slippers after dinner and ONLY when my feet are in them, if I slip it off while he's playing he'll drop it and go after the other foot.

Goo-boooy!