[Murphy]

murphy is almost 9 months and everytime we leave him for a period of an hour or so, he tears up whatever he can! not the furniture yet, but pillows, clothes, shoes, basically whatever he can get! last night, he got my purse off the dinning room table and destroyed everything in it! what else can i do, OTHER THAN CRATE HIM? i know that i can crate him, but i want other options. also, what happen to the photo section?

 

[RED]

You have to be logged in to go into the photo section. Crate is the only way to go, just wait until you come home and your couch is in a million pieces. We have tried to let Chassis out while we were gone for a shot period of time. She ate her futon, her bed, her bed in her crate, several pairs of panties, socks, towels, tennisballs, sceamin monkey from petsmart, window seals, corner of the wall, blinds, thats all I can think of right now. She just turned 1 and no signs of stoping yet.

 

[Kate]

Kate's almost 2....and honestly, the crate is the only way to go. If you exercise him enough, the crate will be his time to rest up from burning all that energy. Plus, for only an hour or so, thats fine for the crate. Sometimes if I am going to be gone a long time, I'll block Kate into the kitchen and she still finds stuff to chew up.

 

[cfhoftampa]

I agree you need a crate! I also have tried to let Scarlet out for just a corner gas station run (5 min at the most) and when I got home..my purse was destroyed too along with any article of clothing on the floor, shoes, and pillows! I couls not imagine letting my 2 have roam of the house when I am gone. Plus it is a bug health risk...you don't know what he may get into or what he may eat and have get stuck in him...then have to have it removed. It is so much safer to crate them when you are gone...he may not like it at first but he will get used to it!

 

[Josie's Proud Mom]

Gotta say a"crate" too, sorry. Also it sounds like an issue of seperation anxiety, you might want to look into that.

 

[halo]

a crate

I'd have to agree a crate. Even that if left too long in they will eat their beds and what ever is in it. i usually run the hell outta mind first outside (they like to chase a laser light so it's easy for me) and them when i crate them to go they are so tied they go right to sleep no problems.

 

[RJ'sMom]

Yeah see, it's redundant but a crate is really the best option and not all all mean or confining. My dogs will actually go in the crates on their own with their toys most of the time. I started by always giving a treat when I put them in their crates and tiring them out first like mentioned above helps a lot.

I lost one large brand new leather sofa,and I mean the entire sofa was trashed, and a new Coach backpack, and that was the last time I decided to trust any of my dobies left out free in the house for more than 30 seconds when I was out.

The best thing about a crate is that you don't end up with a dog that you cannot help but be angry at all the time becasue he/she destroys all your stuff.

Dogs destroy people's homes, people bring said dog to dog pound, potentially great dog gets euthanized becasue he or she is labelled a chewer...very sad....
Very Pro-Crate!!! again forgive the redundancy...

K

 

[peeblerelf]

Looks like it may be unanimous! I have to say crate. If you are uncomfortable with it (which isn't uncommon, but you have nothign to worry about!) you could try to confine the dog with baby gates into one particular room where there isn't anything for him to get into, like the kitchen. If that doesn't work then definately go to the crate. Trust me, it's worth it. When my dog was younger I can't even tell you how many pairs of underwear i lost, shoes, even decided to eat my brothers equipment for the army (he wasn't too thrilled). this was all before she was 4 months old, but the last straw was peeing on my bed when my boyfriend would leave for work because she was mad she couldn't go with him. after a few months or however long (every dog is different), leave her out for 5 minutes when you go to the store. Try longer periods of time but the 1st time you have another "incident" it's back in the crate.

 

[Tanner]

I agree with the crate. Faith knows when we get our coats on she has to go to bed. We don't even have to tell her anymore she is usually in there before we walk by it. It seemed cruel to me at first but she doesn't hate it. We also let them run outside for awhile before we crate her. As soon as she goes in there, she lays down to rest. She also sleeps in there at night. During the day when we are at home, if she gets to hyper, we will have her go in there and she does and we hardly ever shut the door. She will just go in there and nap for awhile and then come out. Trust me after accidentally not putting her in there Wednesday night and her getting into my medicine, you can't be too careful. They eat and chew up anything. Here is a pic of one time we forgot to lock her crate when we left.

I know others have posted worse then this. This was just one part of the house she partied at.

Melissa

 

[gadam55]

I feel for ya!

I didn't want to crate either with my Staffordshire Terrier Destiny. She tore up everything just like your problem, I learned that if I didn't want to Crate her I was going to have to trick her somehow. I figured that the T.V. is always on when we are home, so if I left it on during the day when I wasn't home, she might think that I was home. It worked for her, so maybe if you put a radio or T.V. on that might work. Just leave the house at the begining of the training for a short time and come into the house at random times through out the training. After that Destiny just didin't mind when we left as long as something was on for her.

 

[4NGI3]

we don't crate nelson because we're gone for too long of a stretch when we're at work 9+ hrs so we leave him outside and make sure there is nothing that he can distroy... except just when we thought theres nothing he can damage outside, he hits us with a couple of these..

but to be honest thats the most that he can damage outside. we just fill the hole back up and peg down some mesh and its just grass it grows back

plus i'd prefer him to dig a hole in the lawn that can be fixed cheaply than to chew up our new leather couch or our new coffee table or pretty much ANYTHING in the house.


but when we're at home, he's chillin inside with us most of the time. could u put ur dog outside instead of letting him use ur house as a playground when ur not at home maybe? god i shudder to imagine what nelson would do to our house if i left him inside while i went to work for 9hrs! :shock: i think i'd walk in and have a mental breakdown!

 

[AkainePSP]

Why don't you want to crate him? Think of it this way crating him is protecting him and your personal belongings. He's not tearing things apart and chewing possibly eating things he's not supposed to. Things that could cause him to have a serious blockage and possibly die if he should choke. You are also not getting upset about this. Crating is not being cruel or inhumane it's for safety and most dogs think of their crates as a safe haven. A lot of dogs will even go into their crates to relax and sleep even when they don't have too. Just my opinion.