Dogs & Laptops do not mix - A Rant

littlesnuggy

Just need to have a rant somewhere that isn't at my OH as he just tells me it's my own fault!

In the evenings I usually sit on the sofa with my laptop (that I also use for work during the day). My pug also likes to sit on the sofa and will usually snuggle nicely besides me but sometimes jumps up and runs across my lap (and laptop).

About a year ago he knocked some keys off doing this but fortunately all but one reattached. The S key was broken but I could still press the button underneath and continued like this fine for almost a year.

In December I was drinking a cup of tea with laptop on my lap when the dog decides he wants attention, paws at my arm and subsequently spills a few drops of tea onto the laptop. Typically this goes over the area with the missing key, so the S then stopped working altogether as I assume the liquid got into the circuit.

I looked on eBay and lo and behold a new keyboard could be bought for £12.99 - perfect! Got this, OH fitted it and hey presto a fully working new keyboard again.

Yesterday, laptop is on my knee and dog hears a noise outside so jumps up. I immediately smell that disgusting fishy smell that only a dog-owner would recognise & know where it came from . Thought it had just got on my jeans so changed them. Later on could still smell it so wiped down the leather sofa. Only later did I realise the smell was on my keyboard _pale_

Having wiped with a baby wipe and left for a few hours, it still reeked. I moved it under a bright light and I could see a sticky looking patch (sorry, TMI) under some of the keys so carefully prised the ones over it off. I even watched a video first to make sure I didn't break any. I cleaned the patch with a cotton bud & soap, carefully avoiding getting anything circuit-y wet, but when putting the keys back on I managed to break one .

And it still smells.

So looks like I need to get another keyboard. And they've shot up to £28.99 now.

Bu**er.

I know I'll never stick to not letting the dog on the sofa or only using the laptop at the table, so maybe I should get one of those lap cushions that would make it higher and harder for him to clamber on. Hmmmm

Anyway, rant over! Does anyone else have any similar anecdotes to make me feel better / know that I'm not the only one who puts up with such things?!

chris_n_tj

Sorry I cant help it :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::o Oh the joys of being owned by a furkid

littlesnuggy

Haha thanks Chris, I think laughing about it is the only thing left to do! I just can't believe how on earth he managed to get it.

Had to go to the office this morning and was hoping nobody got too close to my laptop and asked 'what's that smell'?

Wellyboots6

The amount of times I have sent a load of gibberish to someone because Dog decides to drop his toy on the keyboard and is happens to hit 'send' along with a load of random keys.

He also managed to deleted a very important email doing this.

And knocked a glass or red wine in to my work laptop.

And has a drink and then dribbles a bowl full of water all over the keyboard.

And no, I haven't learnt my lesson yet!!

ian103

one of the cats managed to change the orientation of my screen and alter the pointer setting by sitting on the keypad of the laptop - it was free to fix but took a while as the mouse and the pointer didn't coordinate properly - all I got from OH is that its my own fault for letting the cat sit on my lap

UKTigerlily

Not just us that have this problem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBFxSTElKBU

meritaten

Sorry, but your dog sounds very badly behaved. I would never have let my dogs jump all over me like that. If you do, then expect to have damaged keyboards, clothes etc.

aileth

Nothing in regards to damage, but I feel your pain in regards to the fishiness. In the car he is secured, but we stop, get ready and he jumps on my lap ready to get out, barks and... bye bye jeans.... I've never run so fast inside stripping in my life.

littlesnuggy

meritaten wrote: »

Sorry, but your dog sounds very badly behaved. I would never have let my dogs jump all over me like that. If you do, then expect to have damaged keyboards, clothes etc.

Thanks for your input. I am the first to admit he is not the world's best behaved dog, but thanks to our comittment and ongoing training (with the help of an excellent trainer) his behaviour has improved significantly over the last few months. We have been focussing on his barking when out of the house (caused by nervousness) and are now moving on to tackling when inside.

He is very reactive to any sounds he hears, and the slightest noise will still send him from a deep sleep to jumping up and barking. Living in a ground floor flat, whenever the neighbours come in/out and are on the stairs he hears them. In each instance that he has run across my lap, it has been because of this reaction to a noise, not because he is out of control crazily running all over the house.

The change in him when out on walks has been brilliant, and several people who he used to bark at every time he saw them have commented how well we've done in training this out of him. So thanks for your post (which from the info I gave I can see how you might have came to the conclusion you did), but I wanted to defend him/myself that this isn't a result of bad behaviour - as our trainer says it's an unwanted behaviour that we are tackling.

spike241

ian103 wrote: »

one of the cats managed to change the orientation of my screen and alter the pointer setting by sitting on the keypad of the laptop - it was free to fix but took a while as the mouse and the pointer didn't coordinate properly - all I got from OH is that its my own fault for letting the cat sit on my lap

Weird, mine did that too. I had to turn the laptop round while I googled how to fix it

peachyprice

What's the 'fishy' smell?
I have a neutered male and have never smelt it, should I have?