Wait, did he say the dog ate one shoe in two days? That's not really a destruction problem, that's just a dog being a dog in a new place. Shepherds chew when they're stressed, and a shelter dog is stressed for way longer than 48 hours. You can't expect a rescue to act like it's been in your house forever after two days, that's just not how it works. The guy bailed before the dog even had a chance, so yeah, that one's on him.

Two rows of Kingsford and 8 lit coals doing 7 hours at 250 to 275 is basically the same thing as my grandma's old crock pot, she'd walk away all day and dinner was just done when we got back. There's something funny about how we make things harder on ourselves for years because we think paying attention is the same as doing it better. I've noticed it with bread too, I spent a whole winter kneading by hand and then a no knead recipe in a dutch oven beat it every single time. For brisket past 8 hours you'll want a water pan under the grate or the fat hitting hot coals will flare and taste bitter, and you'll be refilling that snake once for sure. Try it on a smaller packer first so you're not out 80 bucks if the ends dry out.