While at my physio, his Akita ate the clearcoat off the ends of my Record ergo levers -seriously. That was after he ate my bar end plugs and the ends of the bar tape. I've done a touch up on the levers with clear nail varnish, but any tips for refinishing the levers more fully would be appreciated. Fortunately I got back to the bike in time before he (the dog) started to eat my C50.

I would simply eat the dog. Akita is under-rated as a good source of protein.

damn stupid ass dogs. "Hey, carbon fiber. That looks like it would be good to eat"

In some countries they eat dogs

Dogs can be dogs - hard to blame them too much - but the owner does hold some blame. I'd suggest your physio owes you free seasons as payment in kind. He/she gets off easy and you invest the saved cash for replacement levers (shhssh then keep the chewed ones in the drawer should you later trash the new ones).

Akitas are Japanese, are'nt they ?, maybe it did'nt like the fact you had Campy and not Shimano.

Sometimes animals are so weird.

One of my cats bites on every kind of rubber and the other one likes to hunt some kinds of plastics (favourite: LEGO pieces) across my room

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Re the Japanese angle - too true, I hadn't thought of that. I've been up there on Shimano equipped bikes and they haven't touched them. Mind you, I don't think I'll experiment further!

BTW does anyone know how to remove the rivets that hold on the Campy brakelevers. I have a second pair of Ergo levers that I could swap the brake levers over on, but I'm not sure whether the "rivets" holding them on come apart - and if they go back together again.

Sorry to hear about your levers, I wonder what the dog was thinking?
The brake levers can be a bit tricky to get off. First you need to get out the brake cable, this makes the lever easier to manouvre.
To get the lever off the body of the shifter you need to push out the pin/spindle on the side of the levers, where the lever turn on the body (does this sound logical?) Inside the lever itself there is a small sleeve wrapped around the spindle that holds the lever. The sleeve has a cut in it. Easiest thing to do is to open the sleeve with a flat screwdriver and you should be able to push out the spindle pretty easy. (it's easier if you get somebody to help you) If you are a bit handy you could sand down the levers and reapply clearcoat to them. To make it look like the original you need many layers of clearcoat, so be patient and the result will look just like new.
I hope this is of any help, I happen to have a disassembled lever here so if you need any pictures to clarify things let me know.
Good luck!

Boonen - thanks very much for the info on the ergo lever - it makes perfect sense. I've beein building up clearcoat on the levers over the course of the week and they look pretty much fine now. However, if I need to change them I now have the necessary info. Thanks again - P

You also can use an arbor press and punch. Under the lever I've also placed a small custom tool I made from an Aliante saddle nose cap. I drilled out the hole so the pin drops right through it when it's pressed out. The cap also has the perfect angle for the Ergo to rest securely on a flat surface.

It's not the dog's fault and it is the owner's fault. I would let him know how you feel without any demands.
My neighbor's German shepperd ran me down during my third ride of a brand new bike a few years ago. The dog caused $800 worth of damage to the bike which the owner paid me for after I showed him the bike shop estimate for repair.