Okay, okay… did a search for dogs AND for pets, but the only thing I saw was in the BBQ pit about why dogs should be shot.
Since I’m a nice pet owner, I’m looking for a less drastic solution…
I have a dog. An Australian Shepherd, to be precise. She is just under a year old. And she chews. Everything.
Just the other day she ate a whole bag of balloons. Now I find myself watching the backyard through the windows just hoping to see… well, you get the image!
She’s eaten glass ornament balls from my tree (finds them quite tasty with a little bit of tinsle for seasoning). She’s eaten my daughter’s homework (try convincing the teacher of THAT one!). She’s eaten various socks, a few video tapes, an entire rocking horse - all we found were bits of wood where the rocking horse had been (where DID the rest of it go?!).
She ate my vacuum cleaner (okay, just the handle and the cord - but what can I do without those?!). Not that I minded that one particularly… Just today I had to stop and check a Santa figurine, standing innocently on the end-table, wondering what it was about him that made me stop and look… it might’ve been because he was recently beheaded <gasp!>.
So of course I have the ropes, the hooves and other miscellaneous chew toys. These she plays with while I’m at home… the image of the angelic pet, she will bring my book to me while I’m sitting on the couch. She sleeps with four paws in the air and her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth. She lies on her back and holds her ball in the air with her paws to examine how best to get the dog biscuit inside OUT.
Diagnosis: dog is bored and/or lonely. Solutions? Suggestions? Doggy Valium prescriptions?
I’ve had two Australian Shepherd/Border Collie cross dogs. They tend to be very bright, and when they get bored, they tend to chew. Step One is training. If you can, find the name of a reputable trainer and take her for classes. You’ll both learn a lot. Step Two might be checking with the vet to be sure there’s nothing wrong with her health.
Aside from doing puppy classes, we also made sure our dog had plenty of rawhide chews of various types and interesting toys (although nothing is quite as interesting as socks and children’s toys). We also crate-trained him and kept him confined when we weren’t home or were in bed.
The bottom line is, they usually grow out of it by age two or three.
My Border Collie/Lab cross chewed until he was five. A lifesaver was the Kong toys - they are the only toy that he couldn’t chew up. They are tough, and you can stuff food and treats inside to make it more enticing. Check this out:
One thing I learned very fast with this dog is to put my stuff away - I couln’t leave anything out where he could get it.
Or maybe you can get another dog to keep her company?
The little red ball she holds up between her paws IS a kong - it’s a gift from my vet as a ‘pet-aid’! It’s one of her favorite toys, too… Looks like I need to make more of an investment in getting her MORE of 'em!
Boscibo what do/did you stuff your Kong with?
And InternetLegend this dog is positively brilliant (or maybe I’m biased) but that’s what scares me - she opened a door this a.m. by dragging her paw over the handle… to get to my daughter’s toys to chew!
Mangetout my dog eats those in 30 minutes. Yes, even the Galileo… (and I didn’t even give that to her, she took it off the counter!). Then I have all of these little bits of nylon to vacuum up off the carpet. Get a crumb of nylabone stuck between your toes some morning and you’ll know why I haven’t bought her any more!
CasperQ, I would always buy the black Kongs. I filled them with whatever I had on hand - mostly kibble or milk bones with some processed cheese and that would hold him for awhile. I didn’t want to put anything really messy in there, he is a house dog.
Out of all the toys I bought him, the black Kongs were the only ones he didn’t destroy.
He is old (13) and he doesn’t have a chewing problem anymore - but the last thing he chewd up was the remote control for he cable TV. :rolleyes:
