Shepherd wins Hambone Award for destroying kitchen cabinet

Luca the Shiloh shepherd with his 2024 Hambone Award

Photos courtesy of Nationwide

Luca, a Shiloh shepherd from Massachusetts, was crowned as the 2024 Hambone Award Winner for completely dismantling his owner’s kitchen cabinet. The 16th-annual award, presented by Nationwide, raises awareness about the surprising things that can happen to pets, and the importance of having pet insurance.¹

“I looked up the stairs and I see my cabinet gone,” Lori, Luca’s owner, said in a Nationwide news release.¹ “He pulled the entire cabinet out, track and everything. The barrel and the front of the cabinet was flung over into my dining room.”

Luca, like many dogs, has never loved spending time in his crate. He had been behaving lately, so Lori granted him the run of the house while she quickly ran out to pick up her daughter. She was shocked when she arrived home to the aftermath of Luca’s hour of independence. By destroying the cabinet, Luca found himself with easy access to the concealed trash can, and he tried to eat everything inside.

“Lori did an amazing job being able to overlook the damage to their home—at least temporarily—and focus on Luca’s health,” Jules Benson, BVSc, MRCVS, vice president, pet health and chief veterinary officer at Nationwide, said in the news release.¹ “The corn cobs that Luca had eaten posed an immediate risk of intestinal obstruction and her quick action was critical to a good end result. Credit for this Hambone’s happy ending is also due to the efforts of Luca’s veterinary care team, and his family’s decision to protect him with Nationwide pet insurance.”

Lori, who has more than 20 years of experience rescuing German shepherds, decided she wanted her next dog to be a little bit different. That was when she found Luca on Facebook, and instantly knew that she had to have him. After years of experience with her dogs, Lori expressed the importance of having pet health insurance. “It gives you the freedom to be prepared for emergencies if they come up, and [the ability to] just care for your pet,” she said.¹

Lambeau with his owners, Matt and Emily

Nationwide hosted a public vote in August 2024 to determine the official Hambone Award Winner out of 8 finalists. The 2 runners-up for this year’s award were Lambeau, a mixed-breed dog from North Carolina, and Archie, a mixed-breed pup from New Jersey.^1,2,3

Lambeau’s claim-to-fame was eating more than 250 jigsaw puzzle pieces when his owners, Emily and Matt, ran out on an errand. Upon realizing what Lambeau had gotten into while they were gone, they immediately called their veterinarian, who advised that they either wait for it to pass or induce vomiting. They chose the latter, were able to recover all of the pieces without any surgery, and Lambeau made a quick recovery.²

Archie

Archie, on the other hand, was a vigilant protector of his household, defending his owners, Troy and Briana, from a dog’s worst enemy: the mailman. Troy was relaxing at home when he heard glass shatter in the other room. When he checked it out, he found that Archie had jumped through their plate-glass front door. Troy brought him to the emergency veterinarian, and despite an initially scary scene, Troy said that when they picked him up from the veterinarian, he “walked out of there wagging his tail like nothing happened,” according to Nationwide.³

The Hambone Award was named after a dog who got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire holiday ham while waiting to be rescued. The dog was found, and rescued, along with a ham bone and only a mild case of hypothermia. According to Nationwide, all pets that received nominations for the Hambone Award have recovered from their injuries and received reimbursements for eligible veterinary expenses.¹

References

1. Cabinet-crushing shepherd earns Hambone Award for most unusual pet story. News release. Nationwide. August 27, 2024. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://news.nationwide.com/cabinet-crushing-shepherd-earns-hambone-award-for-most-unusual-pet-story/?utm_source=NWNewsroom&utm_medium=Newsroom&utm_campaign=NWNewsroom
2. Puzzling snack for mixed-breed dog. Nationwide. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://www.petinsurance.com/hamboneaward/nominees/2024/lambeau/
3. Excited pup goes postal on the front door. Nationwide. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://www.petinsurance.com/hamboneaward/nominees/2024/archie/