mosstrooper
Member
Dealing with chronic chewing and separation anxiety
When my Staffordshire bull terrier was a puppy she was a terrible chewer, she chewed books, records, cd,s table legs, chair legs, destroyed a whole sofa in an afternoon once, and most annoyingly chewed the toes out of a brand new and quite expensive pair of shoes.
And this is just some of the stuff she destroyed.
Most damage would be done while i was out, and was as a result of separation anxiety, despite the other two dogs in the house.
Bull Terriers are very people/owner oriented, and tend to suffer from separation anxiety more than a lot of dogs. But this can happen with any puppy/dog.
An old dog trainer told me a trick for this that i thought id share, it has saved me a lot of damaged stuff since then and is great fun for the puppy.
What you need is an old army kit bag, im not sure what you call them in the states, i get them from army surplus shops.
You keep the kit bag in full view of the puppy but not in reach.
The kit bag will contain (in roughly this order) A Kong toy, or similar, this toy will have a number of dog food treats jammed inside of it, making them very hard to get out from inside the kong, or similar, also inside will be some old unwashed clothing items you are not too worried about, old socks old jumper etc, but it must smell of you, or the primary owner. Both the Kong, the socks and maybe a couple of other favourite dog toys are inside a cardboard box, this cardboard box is in turn inside another cardboard box, both these boxes and the treats and old clothes are in their turn inside the kit bag.
The first time you pack this bag, you make sure the puppy see's you do it, and even gets to smell or have a little play with the items that are being packed, you do it like this because you want the puppy to understand that the kit bag is full of good stuff.
Its very important not to let the puppy play with any of this stuff while you are in the home, the idea is, you will hang this kit bag on the back of your kitchen door, or anywhere the dog can see/smell it but not reach (usually easy enough unless you have a giant puppy).
What you do is, when you are about to leave the house, you take down the kits bag and do some silly voice talk with your puppy to make him feel nice tease him a little with this goodie bag and leave it on the floor as you leave the house.
Since the dog only ever gets to play this game when you leave the house he will very quickly assiciate the bag and you leaving with a special form of treat, play time.
I don't know if you have ever tried to fight your way through a kit bag, and two cardboard boxes, to get at a few dog treats and toys, but rest assured, it will take a while, be a source of excellent fun for a destructive puppy, cost you very little and potentially save you a fortune.
If the dog gets better at getting into this arrangement, make it harder, put treats in different layers, use cardboard tubes of the sort they roll brand new carpet on, be creative, make it a challenge.
The only other important thing is, when you get home, clean up the mess, put the bag/toy back together for the next time you go out, in full view of the dog, and hang it up, never allow your dog to play like this while you are home, he will lose interest in the game while you are out if you do, this is something that he/she is only allowed to do when your away from the home.
It works, and after a dog has spent a few hours seeking digging, scrabbling its way through canvas, cardboard, socks, etc etc, they will sleep for hours.
When my Staffordshire bull terrier was a puppy she was a terrible chewer, she chewed books, records, cd,s table legs, chair legs, destroyed a whole sofa in an afternoon once, and most annoyingly chewed the toes out of a brand new and quite expensive pair of shoes.
And this is just some of the stuff she destroyed.
Most damage would be done while i was out, and was as a result of separation anxiety, despite the other two dogs in the house.
Bull Terriers are very people/owner oriented, and tend to suffer from separation anxiety more than a lot of dogs. But this can happen with any puppy/dog.
An old dog trainer told me a trick for this that i thought id share, it has saved me a lot of damaged stuff since then and is great fun for the puppy.
What you need is an old army kit bag, im not sure what you call them in the states, i get them from army surplus shops.
You keep the kit bag in full view of the puppy but not in reach.
The kit bag will contain (in roughly this order) A Kong toy, or similar, this toy will have a number of dog food treats jammed inside of it, making them very hard to get out from inside the kong, or similar, also inside will be some old unwashed clothing items you are not too worried about, old socks old jumper etc, but it must smell of you, or the primary owner. Both the Kong, the socks and maybe a couple of other favourite dog toys are inside a cardboard box, this cardboard box is in turn inside another cardboard box, both these boxes and the treats and old clothes are in their turn inside the kit bag.
The first time you pack this bag, you make sure the puppy see's you do it, and even gets to smell or have a little play with the items that are being packed, you do it like this because you want the puppy to understand that the kit bag is full of good stuff.
Its very important not to let the puppy play with any of this stuff while you are in the home, the idea is, you will hang this kit bag on the back of your kitchen door, or anywhere the dog can see/smell it but not reach (usually easy enough unless you have a giant puppy).
What you do is, when you are about to leave the house, you take down the kits bag and do some silly voice talk with your puppy to make him feel nice tease him a little with this goodie bag and leave it on the floor as you leave the house.
Since the dog only ever gets to play this game when you leave the house he will very quickly assiciate the bag and you leaving with a special form of treat, play time.
I don't know if you have ever tried to fight your way through a kit bag, and two cardboard boxes, to get at a few dog treats and toys, but rest assured, it will take a while, be a source of excellent fun for a destructive puppy, cost you very little and potentially save you a fortune.
If the dog gets better at getting into this arrangement, make it harder, put treats in different layers, use cardboard tubes of the sort they roll brand new carpet on, be creative, make it a challenge.
The only other important thing is, when you get home, clean up the mess, put the bag/toy back together for the next time you go out, in full view of the dog, and hang it up, never allow your dog to play like this while you are home, he will lose interest in the game while you are out if you do, this is something that he/she is only allowed to do when your away from the home.
It works, and after a dog has spent a few hours seeking digging, scrabbling its way through canvas, cardboard, socks, etc etc, they will sleep for hours.
