The secret about Kindle's marketing strategy that only your dog knows

Why does my dog keep eating my Kindles?

That's not a real question. I know the answer, or answers: One, because I keep leaving them where he can get them. Two, because he's enjoyed chewing them up in the past, so when he sees one, he thinks, "Fun! Tasty! Yay!"

It's not like dogs I've had before have not eaten my books. My Deerhound Raven was a dedicated reader, as was my mom's Deerhound Doughal. And while over the years no other dog has shown the single-minded bibliophilia exhibited by those two, I've lost more than a few dozen books to the maw of a Deerhound.

But I am now on my fourth Kindle, and I just plucked it out of Rawley's jaw. I'm on about my sixth Kindle cover, counting this one, which he fortunately destroyed without doing more than putting a few teeth marks on the Kindle itself.

Now, one of the things I treasure most about the Kindle is that it doesn't have a backlit screen. I spend all my time on a computer, laptop or iPhone, and the last thing in this world I want is my leisure time reading to be on yet another back-lit screen. So, a lighted cover is a must, since the lighting in a lot of restaurants and even many airplanes isn't always the best.

But those little light attachments must have dried liver powder embedded in them or something, because Rawls cannot resist them. And I can't seem to stop putting them in harm's way, because really? He got the Kindle this morning when I stood up from my chair, put the book on the arm, walked ten feet away into the kitchen, poured a cup of tea, and came back.

In those few seconds, he totally chewed up the light on the cover.

What's really funny is that the light on the cover prior to this one stopped working right after I got it, and Amazon sent me a new one. After the new one was on its way but before it arrived, Rawley ate up Kindle number three, a well as the non-functioning light on its cover. I have to send the malfunctioning cover back to Amazon now that new cover has arrived -- you know, the one he just destroyed? -- and how likely is it they'll believe me when I say the destruction happened AFTER I'd reported the light not working? I mean, aren't they just going to send it back to me with a terse note, "We've concluded the reason your light stopped working is a large carnivore chewed it up"? I mean, I would.

For now, my latest Kindle is fine. But I'm going to have to get a new cover, and the lighted ones cost $60. I guess I'm going to just give up and get a non-lighted one, at least until I can get a trainer out here to break me of my habit of leaving my Kindle where Rawley can get it. Because while I'm sure it's possible to train a dog to ignore the existence of a Kindle or a Kindle cover, I have no clue how to do it.

Or... am I really to blame? Did Amazon in fact manufacture their products with liver powder embedded in the plastic? Am I blaming my innocent dog for something he really had no control over at all?

Comments

[Mary]

Poor, poor Kindle (and covers). It may in fact be part of Amazon's strategy to have you keep replacing them, but I'd be more worried about Rawley swallowing plastic and being sued for his vet bills if I were Amazon. You should look into having a custom hip holster made for it, so you don't have to leave it unattended for even a moment.

[Kim]

In my experience it's about value.

You spend a lot of time with your Kindle in your hands, I would assume. One of my dogs had a penchant for the television remote and my roommate's pager - until we realized those were the two things in the house he handled repeatedly in front of the dog.

Same with the book obsession here, my middle girl loves to eat whatever I'm currently reading. Stacks of books waiting to be read, stacks of books already read - but she will only eat one if I leave out the one I'm currently working on or just finished.

When she was younger she ate my laptop cables. Like, six times (same inability to just put them out of reach going on over at my house...) in under a year. Again, my laptop is probably the object I handle most in my house.

Of course I've had dogs who enjoyed textures - wood, paper and wicker being the worst - but the really BIG damage was always done by the dogs who cherry picked my favourite items.