A while back I was talking on an I M, visiting the forums, checking out links, etc, etc, etc, and playing with a piece of Bachman track. I use it for my display pieces setting on bookcases and shelves. I dropped it and was too busy at the time to pick it up (and lazy too I guess). Before I knew it the dog had my track piece and was chewing it up. [:0] Not a big loss for sure, and glad it wasn’t something more expensive. But it made me think about how many times I would be talking on an I M and have the other person say something about their cat walking on their layout and knocking cars off the tracks (or worse). [;)] So I am curious, what hijinks or damage have your pets done to or on your layout or to your equipment? [;)] [:D]
when my layout was in the living room floor my dog walked all over it luckily it was only a peice of plywood with track and a few buildings but man those little people must have been scared stiff by dogzilla
Part of the reason I have no pets. Before I got divorced, my ex-wife’s brother gave us a dog. The dog was house broken, and would go outside most of the time. But for some reason he liked to go downstairs to the train room on occasion and pee and poop. One day I had someone over, and was standing there talking to him in the train room. The dog was behind me. In mid conversation the guy pointed at the dog. I turned to see the dog, leg raised, whizzing on the rug.
I am happy to report that both wife and dog are long gone!!![swg]
P.S. I’m still finding dog hair in the train room, and everywhere else for that matter.[xx(]
My dog 'Bo(short for hobo) doesn’t bother my trains…She is far better behave then some friends of mine yard apes who feel they must touch everything including sharp hobby knives…
I had made a post about my problems with my cats a little while ago. I had used pavers sand as gravel on my layout. It looked great, but it also looked like cat litter. SO my cats used it as that. i kept them for a while but decided when I went to rebuild to leave it off the layout and just make it a sure thing that they wouldn’t mistake it for cat litter again.
Andrew
Accidentally dropped a DZ123 off my work table once and didn’t notice it. I found it in the hall with a few puch marks through the heat strink, and some very twisted wires. My mini doxies must of thought it was a piece of meet. Worked fine, though.
Jack W
Duchess, my Doberman, is just now over 2 years old. When she was still a puppy she chewed the wires to my Dustbuster. It was plugged in and charging too, but I guess it didn’t hurt her.
I make sure and keep all my “train stuff” from her reach. Well most of the time that is. [;)]
My dog tried to catch my locomotives when I run them at my testtrack!!!
Good for me, never catch one !!!
I do not have a pet, but my friend Mike owns a Boston Terrier. One night I was over at his house and we were going through a shipment of supplies he had recieved. One of the boxes was a fresh case of cork road bed. The next morning Mike went down stairs and discovered his dog about half way through a length of road bed. Later that day the poor thing got diariah so bad he had to take it to the vet. The only thing the vet could really do is let it pass through his system. The dog, (who’s name was Brute) had a sore rear end for a week. I guess Cork must be high in fiber 
(I am glad I was not there to witness the mess he perportedly made)
James
For those of you who have beagles, you know that they like to chew. I’m setting up my benchwork now and she knaws on the wood. She hasn’t eaten the trains or track, however.
Dave Vergun
The best way is always to close the train room, it also helps keep the dust and pet hair out.
At the time, the train room had no doors. Now it does, but too late. Oh well.[swg]
My intellectual beagle has figured out ways to open doors.
Then use a lock?[swg] I know I’ll never be able to live without pets, so the day I build a layout, the planning of the way to keep the pets out will come along the planning of the track plan.
Dogs respect territory. One only has to ‘train’ them.
Cats are a whole other matter.
my dog ate a z scale engine and half of a bag of ballast
Good one Don. [:D]
Dogs very much are “Trainable” [;)]
Cats, now that is a different story. [^]
I have friends that say their cats knock over a lot of “stuff” on their layout. Hard to keep a cat off the layout too. Maybe we should all make the “centerpiece” a large dog. [;)] [:D]
My layout is in the basement and, believe it or not, my dog is afraid to go down open ftame stairs. He’ll go up them if he has to, but he won’t go down. When we visited relatives with a finished basement and closed steps a couple of years ago he went up and down as if they weren’t there. He does the cement stains on the back porch just fine as well. As long as I don’t “finish” the basement steps, he’ll never even see the layout. I carried him (all 30 pounds of him) to the basement once to see how he’d behave and he tried to hike his leg on everything he saw. Back up the stairs for him and no more of that!
The basement is divided in half, trains on the east side, my wife’s crafts stuff on the west side.
Cheers,
my cat once knocked a Pennsy Doodlebug off of my upper level tracks… darn shell popped off… was able to snape it back on without a problem, but I no longer store stuff on the upper level…
Jim,
Walt used to have a cat who would lay in the middle of the layout and DARE a train to
hit him. He (cat) would look at the train like he was thinking “Are you kidding?”
That’s why the animals are banned from the train room. [:)]