Brand New Toy Not As Good As My Shoes!

[hortfurball]

Ebony has obviously reached destructo-pup age. I woke up this morning to an entire loo roll spread all over the lounge room like snow!

New rule, loo door closed!

But this evening, I gave her a brand new toy presuming she must have got bored with the others, it squeaks and it has rope bits hanging off it, so really good fun! She was playing with it for about 20 mins on the dog bed near me, tossing it around, making it squeak, chewing on the rope. Then she wandered off so I presumed she'd put herself to bed (she does that) but NO!!!

Silly me had left my wardrobe door open, and now one half of my fave pair of exotic thongs is minus a whole lot of beads and tiger eye, all carefully removed by little puppy teeth! (All in under 10 minutes too!)

Why is this?

I could understand if she had no toys! Surely a new one should hold her interest longer than 20 mins! And her other fave three were lying around the lounge room.

She does have a bit of a thing for rocks and stones I have to say, but I'm pretty certain all of her adult teeth are through now so she shouldn't still be teething.

She's nearly 5 months old.

I think my thong is salvageable though, for a destructo pup she's pretty gentle, the thong itself is intact and not even chewed, just all the beads removed which I have collected.

[persephone]

Oops....

Why? don't really know...

Possibly because the shoes smelt 'familiar'?

the texture of the ornament bits felt nice on her tongue?

Often toys which look 'fun' & interesting to a human eye, don't feel/taste smell appealing to dogs.

try her with a treatball to hold her interest, maybe at that age, she doesn't have a long attention span, either......or some of the kong chewy toys? our pups enjoyed them..until someone buried them all

Edited September 22, 2007 by persephone

[badboyz]

20mins playing with one toy is fabulous in my opinion. Puppies love the things that smell most like you - she adores you and anything that smells like you is irresistable!

[sas]

Puppies & dogs will usually go for items with our scent on them, even our washed clothing has our scent on them.

One thing I learned with Dante is never assume what they're doing, have your eye on them all the time if they're not in a crate.

Puppies have very short attention spans so 20 minutes playing with just the one toy is pretty good!

Mentally stimulating a puppies mind is a great way to wear them out, so 3 to 5 2 minute training sessions per day would help.

Edited September 22, 2007 by sas

[kirbydog]

No offence, but does your pup get enough exercise? My 9 month border goes into destructo mode when he does not get enough exercise. I walk him every morning and afternoon, play fetch und go to ydog training once a week. As we live in a seasonal environment I did not have enough time during winter and he allmost destroyed the house. You also need to claim you stuff and make him understand that your stuff is your stuff. Calm and assertively show him that your shoes etc are off limits. It is important not to take stuff away from them, but make them drop it by walking up and claiming your things. If you take it and substitute it with a toy dogs do not get the message. Ensure that they will drop it and then take it. Good luck!

[hortfurball]

Ta for your responses.

I haven't worn those thongs in about 6 months so I'm not sure how strongly they'd smell of me, they probably smell more like vanilla wardrobe sachet!

Then again, that's to a human nose.

She seems to really like the toys I've given her. I thought 20 mins was good too, that it means she likes the toy. Other than this latest spree she is a pretty trouble free pup, and very quiet and calm, especially for a b/c cross. She can be out in the garden for three hours unsupervised and not dig a hole...or out there for ten minutes and dig one! Ce la vie! 9 times out of ten she won't dog though.

She was playing with the new toy this morning when I went to the loo at 7.30am, then after I'd gone back to bed flatmate must have left the loo door open and gone out and another two loo rolls bit the dust! The spare loo rolls are now out of the basket where they normally live and stacked on a higher surface seeing as the new flatmate is less trainable than the pup!

I do a bit of training with her most days, just really short sessions. Yesterday we just practiced drop, stay and come, oh, and lots of 'out of the garden'! (They have a large area of lawn and lots of paths to do a circuit of the garden, they don't need to be in the beds too!

In terms of exercise, she's still not really happy with the leash yet (just lies down and won't move) so I'm working on that with treats, baby steps and lots of encouragement. Ella and Ebony tear around the garden playing chasey and wrestling most of the day though so I would have thought that would be heaps at her age. Ella thinks she's christmas in a dog skin so that's fantastic! I can't throw a ball much unfortunately as Ella's back is cactus and she's ball obsessed. We had to confiscate the ball three years ago. I did get the ball out last week and throw it just for about 15 minutes, then silly flatmate didn't listen to my "only once or twice and only gently, she's had enough for today" so Ella was in pain for two days after, even with anti-inflammatories. I put the ball away as soon as I realised he was still throwing it 20 minutes later, and wasn't throwing it gently any more. It's not fair on her to get the ball out if people ignore your requests to go easy. Ebony didn't get a look in with the ball anyway.

Ella also grabs one of the toys and makes Ebony chase her round and round the house! I guess I thought with Ella and Ebony playing for most of every day that exercise wasn't that big an issue. Maybe I need to do more brain work with her. Once I can get her happy on the leash and start walking that should help I would think. And as soon as she'll walk on the leash we'll start obedience every Monday evening.

ETA: Rats, I knew I forgot something...I have taught her 'give' - to give up whatever is in her mouth! I didn't just substitute the thong with a dog toy, I put her in the 'time out room' (bathroom) for 5 minutes because I caught her in the act.

Edited September 23, 2007 by hortfurball

[sas]

With the lead training, you can just pop a light weight leash on her whilst you're home and let her drag it around for about a week. Generally puppies don't like the tention of the lead so this way they can stand on it themselves and feel the tention.

Just remember puppies are puppies and they'll do naughty things. Puppies shouldn't be over excerised anyhow.

If you can't have your eyes on her, just crate her

ETA: Rats, I knew I forgot something...I have taught her 'give' - to give up whatever is in her mouth! I didn't just substitute the thong with a dog toy, I put her in the 'time out room' (bathroom) for 5 minutes because I caught her in the act.

Ooops you just gave puppy a time out for doing something good 'give'. That's too confusing for puppy.

Rule of thumb with puppies when they have something they're not meant to have is to substitute for something they are allowed.

Edited September 23, 2007 by sas

[hortfurball]

It's ok, Sas, I forgot in the heat of the moment to tell her to give anyway!

It was more like sharp intake of breath, "NO!!", grab collar, drag to bathroom.