Ivy Chewing On My Things

[poodlefan]

You should see my wooden venetians. :p

[aussielover]

Puppy ate part of an honours thesis. Pretty bad considering I was just borrowing it!

[poodlefan]

Puppy ate part of an honours thesis. Pretty bad considering I was just borrowing it!

Howie ate the last three pages from a mystery novel when he was a bub. :p

Thank God I can now leave a pile of books on the bedside table unmolested. How quickly we forget what puppies are like.

Edited October 15, 2010 by poodlefan

[Kirislin]

Puppy ate part of an honours thesis. Pretty bad considering I was just borrowing it!

Howie ate the last three pages from a mystery novel when he was a bub. :p

Thank God I can now leave a pile of books on the bedside table unmolested. How quickly we forget what puppies are like.

I think we've all spoken from experience with the advice we've given here. My whippets ate 2 library books that I had to pay full price for to compensate the library. Penny chewed the remote and the phone. Someone else chewed the corner of my photo album and there's numerous other things with teeth marks in them. I dont think I ever blamed the dogs though. I knew it was my own fault.

[♥Baxter♥]

Only thing my boy is interested in chewing are his bones, do you give her some?

[Crisovar]

Some training session daily even if it is teaching her tricks will work her brain also, GSDs need to exercise the brain as well as the body. 20 minutes of teaching something that she has to work at is as good as an off leash run for my girl.

[Monah]

PF, the same thing happened to me with a novel

I have coffee tables with 'matching' 4 corners, all chewed nicely at least it's uniform!!

Years ago we had gorgeous, limed white very expensive venetians made to measure. Well, the lakelands were looking out the window (they NEVER chewed anything!!), they were sitting on the back of a settee, and they went off at something and leapt into the window taking thousands of dollars of window wear with them.

Only lovely cheap ones for me these days :p

lopolla, sounds like you are taking control back, excellent. It is difficult when others in the house do not abide by the rules... (like a certain OH I could name, but wont... :D )xxxxxxx

[Ker]

My beautiful lappie is a chewer. Last night she got to my daughters purple suede boots and chewed them. She also got to the kids plastic bowling set. We don't leave things out...the bloody dog is too smart and learned how to OPEN THE DOORS!!! We have lever type handles and she jumps up and opens them! I couldn't figure how she was doing it until I hid and watched the bugger. Wardrobes are sliding doors and easy to open.

She has toys, but she'd rather chew on our stuff. Yep, she has chewed library books too - which were on a shelf in my robe.

[Sydoo]

I won't even talk about what Billie has eaten... too embarassing! :D Something else we do is toy rotation. This might sound gross but I stash some toys in the bottom of OH's dirty laundry hamper for a few days and she treasures them when they magically reappear. I also do this with new toys as I've noticed she can be put off by that 'manufacturing' smell some things have. When inside, she is also keen on toys that have been outside and no doubt smell like dirt, grass etc.

[dancinbcs]

Haven't read all the posts but my experience with two super chewers taught me a lot. All my dogs have chewed a few things but two of them would destroy anything within reach for at least 2 or 3 years. Both these ate their bedding every night, the second one had his hession bag on the trampoline bed replaced twice a week. Both chewed the door frames in the laundry where they were confined when not supervised but the first one did the most damage to general house and garden items because I didn't know how to deal with the problem.

The only way to avoid things being chewed when you are not supervising is a physical barrier, such as a crate or an ex pen. If you get a kennel for outside, make it a secoind hand one because it will probably get chewed at this stage too.

The one thing that made a big difference with my second chewer, was having a toy basket kept stocked with toys he could play with or destroy. Whenever he was loose in the house, under supervision, I would praise like mad every time he went to his toy basket to select a toy. If he showed any interest in something that was not his, a growl from me made it clear that the item was mine, not his and he left it alone.

If a puppy tries to take something that belongs to another dog, it will be growled at and understand, so using this technique works well. The other really important point is always praising when they do the right thing and it is something many owners forget to do. If they are lying quietly chewing something they should, you need to let them know they are doing the right thing.

Also providing plenty of big bones and hard chews like deer antler and compressed beefhide (if you can find any these days that is not from China) will help them use up the urge to chew. You cannot stop a chewer from chewing, you can only make sure they chew things they are allowed to chew.