Tech Hungry Hound From San Diego Up For 2018 Hambone Award

SAN DIEGO, CA – Pets can get into a lot of trouble. Just ask the owners of the 12 nominees for Nationwide Insurance's 2018 Hambone Award, an annual honor for a pet who has gotten itself into an astounding amount of trouble.

This year's nominees include a dog from San Diego. The nominees' stories come from pet insurance claims owners made through Nationwide.

Howard, a golden retriever from San Diego, chewed up and swallowed an electronics charger earlier this year. His dangerous dinner and heartwarming recovery earned him the title of July's "Most Unusual Claim of the Month" by Nationwide.

"He's such a loving dog, but he's pretty mischievous and has a tendency to get himself into trouble from time to time," owner Aimee told Nationwide.

"Howard has chewed up things in the past, but never something this dangerous," she said. "I wasn't sure he had been shocked or not, but I knew he needed medical attention. Thank goodness for pet insurance, because this isn’t the first emergency trip he's had."

Luckily, the staff at Bodhi Animal Hospital in San Diego determined that Howard, or "Howie" for short, had not suffered an electrical shock when he pulled the charger out of the wall and ate it. The veterinary staff induced vomiting to help remove as much of the ingested charger as they could, and he later passed the remaining contents naturally.

Nationwide reviewed nearly 1.5 million pet insurance claims received over the past year, before narrowing the list down to 12 candidates for the 2018 Hambone Award. Each year, the company searches through its database of more than 700,000 insured pets to honor the most "Unusual Pet Insurance Claim of the Year."

The winner will be decided by a public vote at www.HamboneAward.com. The veterinary practice that treated this year's Hambone Award winner will receive a $10,000 Nationwide-funded award through the Veterinary Care Foundation to treat pets whose owners could not otherwise afford treatment, according to the company.

Read more about the Hambone Award nominees here.

Images courtesy Nationwide Insurance