Quite correct, Peony! With pleasure, more stories!
Johnny observed us picking up fallen limbs before mowing (2 silver maples, a sycamore, 2 oak trees and 2 pecan trees in his fenced area) so he started picking them all up for us and stacking them neatly next to his doghouse. Then he would gnaw the branches down to sawdust and I presume ate a lot of said sawdust as it did not accumulate. He also ate the corners off the back porch steps and gnawed the door in his wooden doghouse bigger as he grew taller. In very small amounts, done gradually as he grew.
One day we had a bad heat wave. Johnny let himself out of the back yard, did a belly flop in the 4 foot deep goldfish pond. climbed out once he'd cooled off and latched himself back into the yard. No casualties among the goldfish, fortunately.
We got a mole infestation. Visilble cat's cradle of tunnels thru the yard. Johnny got annoyed because he sunk a foot into a tunnel dashing after a squirrel (dog did a frontward rolling flip and landed on his back with no injury except to his digniteh) and proceeded to spend the next 2 weeks digging up mole tunnels. We'd look out a window and see him, nose to the ground, digging with both front paws going to left and right, digging out the tunnel all along the line. Eventually he'd trot back to the house and deposit a deceased mole by the steps. Never tried to eat one. Not sure why they expired, but they had. Dad used to wish Sis and I were that good about picking up our socks.
Johnny also ate his plastic food and water bowls the first day. We ended up getting a food grade plastic bucket out and putting water in it, with a metal weight to hold it down. (first time we put the bucket out there without the weight, doggo decided to pick it up by the edge and dump all the water straight into his face. Thought it was a wonderful game.
If you left the weight out, he kept doing it, too. )
Visited the store to get a new food bowl and upon realizing the pet section was out of large size metal bowl, we went to automotive and got a (new, ofc) galvanized aluminum oil pan for a food bowl. Went home, served Johnny his dinner. He came tearing up to the deck and realized he had never seen a bowl like that but IT HAD HIS LUNCH! Cue doggo circling around it and barking at the pan for a couple minutes till he got used to it. Food bowl became his new fave toy. Johnny would run round the yard with the bowl in his teeth, held by the bottom edge so he wouldn't trip on it. So it was up in front of his eyes. Never ran into anything.
Also, the back deck was made of bricks, so he took up the habit of raking the bowl across the deck to make a rattling noise when he was hungry. Generally at 3 am under my parent's bedroom window.
Dad would ask, Why does he do that? Standard reply was, he wants to be let out of dog jail.
Then there was the time he dug up the septic tank. No idea how. The fun part about that was, we'd thought we were on a sewer line and had been paying a sewer bill. For 4 years. Dad called and got a refund. Part of this was used to buy steaks for dinner. 4 for us, one for the dog.