Brun

I'll try and cut a long story short
Our dog (whippet cross) is 16 months old and has never been a problem with chewing bar one or two incidents - until now. The dog actually lived with my girlfriend until early December when we moved the dog into her parents house while we get her pad ready to sell. For 4 weeks while living there, the dog has been fine but just over the past 2 weeks she has started to eat the house (pics to follow). She is left during the day with plenty to chew - kongs, bones etc but never touches them and has so far had a good go at the dining room door, and now the door frames to 2 other doors. Obviously her parents are a little unhappy that their house is now dog food so i'm just looking for some help really.
I've been going to amuse her in the afternoons as i'm on earlys and walking her. Today i was there for 2 hours and in the 50 minutes between me leaving and the Parents coming back she had made another complete mess of the frame. As she's doing it when no-one is there, we can't dicipline her for it. If we paste the things she likes to chew in mustard or similar, i'm sure she'll find sommat else to destroy.
Brun - scans yellow pages for a joiner

Brun

The guilty party -

angrynorth

Bloody hell, sorry for you bud. Hope you get that sorted.

Out of interest, what is she crossed with?

Brun

... a Kangeroo i think - she can't half jump

Shark Man

My mates 1yr old Spanial does this. The kitchen door frame is almost destroyed!

He gets distressed when left out of sight of his owners. I think he sees the door as the object that is separating him from them and thus tries eat his way through it. Although its always the frame that suffers.


Oddly you can stick him in the car and leave him all day long and he'll just curl up in the footwell

Not sorted him out yet, as a dog owner, I'm stuck on answers, althuogh I have manged to get the stupid mutt to realise that pulling on the lead will result in him choking (and no, it wasn't me tugging the lead).

Markus

Can't you hire her out to a local carpentry firm, I'm sure they'd put her skills to use

Joking aside, Perhaps some dentabones might be another option for her to chew on, not sure if she'll ignore them in the same way she does her other chew toys. One other chew toy idea, it's a kong like ball that you insert treats into (try snausages, not sure if you get them over there, but our Lab goes nuts for them), the idea being it'll take them a while to get at the food in the toy, so they'll concentrate on that, rather than going and doing a bit of wood planing.

You could try coating the door frames in something she does not like, perhaps wasabi/mustard/citronella. Obviously needs to be something that isn't toxic, but will make her think "yuck, I'm not going near that again!". Have a look at a pet shop for pet repellant stuff and try spraying that on the door frames, or anywhere else she's likely to chew.

Brun

She has plenty of stuff to chew of various shapes and sizes and types but never chews them in our absence. We tried the chew spray - but no change.
I think the next step is to involve some cayenne pepper.
I fully accept its an anxiety thing so i guess it's something which cannot be trained out of her?

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

your dog is lonely.

ours used to do it too.

let me remember...

your supposed to go out, then come back in at differing time scales. something like go out, lock the door as if your going to leave do nothing differently to what you usually do when you go out.

except come back in after 5,10, 15, 20 25 mins, ignore the dog dont fuss it, walk in and do whatever, go out again and increase the time between coming back, iirc its something like 5 min intervals and do it a few times a week, its a pain but it shows the dog that you are always going to come back and it keeps them on their toes.

ours still does it but its nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

its important to remember not to fuss the dog when you come in though, just walk in and ignore the dog.

hth

James

stoneface

iTrader: (6)

The key thing is mentioned above by james, ignore the dog when you return home.

Brun

Excellent advice - i'll have to give that a go.
Hopefully soon, my lasses house will sell and we can get the house we've made an offer on. I plan to give Marli a Shed and a decent fenced in run for when we're out

Brun

What is the reason for this?

OllyK

Because it breaks the tie between you coming home and them getting a fuss immediately.

See if you can get some "bitter apple" from you local pet shop and spray this on the areas being chewed, it stops most dogs from chewing as they don't like the taste.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

If it's really urgent get a dog cage, sounds bad, but it had to work for us, selling the house ! I could lend you ours if you are desperate for a quick solution.

DunxC

P.S. Short term fix, and ensure water, bedding etc...

ghg

its a pack thing.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

If you fuss the dog you elevate it's status in the pack to above you !

They soon catch on if you follow the excellent advice above. I also used a video camera to "spy" on the little bugger, so as to catch him in the act !
Mine ate settees and chair padding !

DunxC

Brun

Thanks for the offer Dunx but as luck would have it - we actually have one. Obviously we didn't want to resort to it, but for the moment it's gonna have to do i think

ritchie21

Agreed you're dog is lonely and sad! By chewing something she'd not meant to, she is guaranteeing that she'll get some form of attention from you when you get home.

My colleague had similar problems and out of desparation hired a doggy psychologist (I kid you not!) who said the dog was suffering from separation anxiety disorder because he was being left. Two 2hr sessions with the doggy psychologist sorted little merlin out and sorted all the problems.

Good luck!

DLP

Had the same problem with my border collie,infact only just replaced achitrive and skirting,has he know behaves himself.
All the best fella,they do grow out of it,honest !

stoneface

iTrader: (6)

As mentioned it stems from there pack mentality, your dog thinks he's responsible for you and worries about when your out, ignoring him for say 20 mins when you return home will redress the balance and help make your dog think your the boss.

greenonedave

get a good dog behaviourist, sort it in no time, try Natural Animal Centre
0870 9913334, highly recommended

sti-04!!

There is some cracking advise above. Both my dogs go into there cages when i am away for a few hours, if its most of the day i have a purpose built kennels that they go into.

They prefer the cages to be honest as they are in the house but the kennels are heated blah blah

Anyway another thing to consider is a kong toy which i give the dogs that are full of spreading cheese & cold meat. Works wonders as they need to concentrate on getting the food out.

Maybe an idea to use both the cage & the kong also make sure the dog has plenty of chewing toys & bones.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

My dog is doing the same thing only shes getting bigger quickly

she does it if I go upstairs

scoobyvirgin

From my experience the dog misbehaves and gets told off, which it sees as getting immediate attention when you walk in. Therefore it backs up the dog's thoughts that if it continues to chew it will gain attention. What you need to do, as previously advised, is just ignore the dog and the mess, that way it will not back upthe behavioural patterns.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Nothing works with this dog !!

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

pimmo, get a coke can and half fill it with pebbles, when it does it shake the can at the dog and firmly say NO. nothing else, just go back to what you were doing. it wont take long for him to stop

billythekid

How long are you walking the dog for in the morning before you leave it?
How long are you leaving it for in the day?

OllyK

Just a subtle extension to this point. This doesn't mean you can't fuss your dog, you can, but it should be on your terms. In otherwords you go to the dog and fuss it when you want to fuss, not when it comes to you looking for a fuss. By not fussing it as soon as you get home, it comes to realise that you define when play time is and that being a PITA does not get it the attention it was hoping for and that it only gets it when it is calm and you are ready.

92typeRA

my boxer done this kinda thing when we first got her...i done what most off the guys above have said...made no fuss over her/mess when i came in. some how it worked :norty . failing that get yourself a crate/cage.at least iff shes in the cage she cant hurt herself with splinters,plastic ect.

remmember to prase her big time when she dose not make a mess

s700by t

the crate idea works i have a chocolate lab who has always well nearly always been ok but a good mate of mine had a beagle his wife was in hospitol for a while and he was leaving his 2 kids looking after it and within 3 weeks it totaled all woodwork including window cills/ it was hard to fix it all b4 his wife got home but luckily we are all in the site managment type of careers. he brought a crate for the dog /we finished work the night b4 she got home/phew saved him as the dog is his

David Lock

Good luck - I am sure the attention thing is the absolute key.

Pity you are not down south as you could park her on Worthing beach. Should keep her busy for a while

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