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to write a list of all the things my dog has chewed up would be extremely long, he is a black mouth cur and an extremely good dog when i'm home, but as soon as i leave i know i am going to come home to a disaster! i thought the answer was a cage but that caused even more anxiety. I did very well training with it and when i was home he went into the cage no problem, he ate, slept and even just chilled in it. whenever i would leave though he would find a way out of it, i reinforced it and he broke the bars off of it....i seriously need the "it's me or the dog" lady! i came home today and he had bent the bars, ripped up the bottom and dug a hole in the carpet. he does this at all costs as well, he has scrapes and cuts all on his face and paws from all of this, yet getting out is more important than the pain he's inflicting on himself! i would just leave him out of the cage to decrease his stress but he still chews things up! my boyfriend just wants to get rid of him, but he's my baby and a very good dog otherwise. suggestions??
Sounds like separation anxiety. Read up on it. You also might buy a sturdy plastic crate on Craigslist with a heavy steel door. We bought such a crate for a foster dog who mutilated a wire crate. DH ran out at 8pm to Petsmart and spent $200 for it. I didn't know I could have purchased a similar one used on CL for about $45. My crate is now in constant use by the local rescue group for various foster dogs with the same issues. I see it every few months when a dog is adopted and w/i a week or so someone else is borrowing it. Haven't seen it in about 4 months now......so whoever is using it hasn't cured the dog yet or he's not adopted.
After dealing with separation anxiety with our pup I believe that not all dogs can handle being crated. Search this forum for info on separation anxiety. I got a lot of great advice here when we went through it this past summer. For our dog, it was A LOT of practicing leaving him alone for brief periods of time over and over again for weeks. Since the crate made things worse and he always managed to get out we opten to let him have the run of the downstairs area. I would leave for a few seconds at a time and eventually worked my way up to an hour or two and we were good to go from there. We also got a trainer which I found to be a great investment. She helped us a lot with the separation anxiety and trained us on how to help him me more independent since he grew very attached to me in the beginning. Meds, thundershirt, and rescue remedy did nothing for our pup. Good luck! I know it's trying times, but hopefully your dog will find relief soon.
It really does work, I was at an adoption event where they were playing it, and all of the dogs within earshot of the booth were relaxed and mellow. The dogs at the other end of the shelter were barking, excited, jumping around...i was pretty amazed. Worth a shot anyway! Maybe that plus the rescue remedy would help?
Same dilemma with our adopted hound of a year and a half. It was a full year before we could crate him without mishap. It was also a full year before we got him acclimated enough to the crate that we dared use a plastic Varikennel (had we started with that, he'd have hooked a tooth in the ventilation holes in the back and gnawed it to plastic shavings). He had extreme anxiety in the wire crate we started with, much as you describe, and broke out of it several times, despite reinforcing it. When he didn't break out of it, he gnawed the crate pan to bits, bent the bars, and routinely defecated and urinated in it even when left in it for short periods of time and following vigorous, lengthy exercise with ample elimination.
Major separation anxiety, and probable past as a puppy mill dog, obviously very distressing associations with being crated, and crating had been obviously so abused that his natural instinct to keep his "home" clean was no longer present and he may never be reliable in that way. We'd have preferred not to crate him, and tried to do without it, since his reaction was so adverse, but he was simply too destructive, and having him out was both dangerous to him and damaging to our home and goods.
What worked for us, in tackling the worst of the separation anxiety:
-Consistency. Once we realized that we weren't doing him any favors by leaving him out and guaranteeing that he'd get into trouble, we stopped focusing on "Let's not crate him," and "Let's get him as used to the crate as possible by NOT backing down from it.
-Time. Do NOT expect separation anxiety to go away in a day. Or a week. Or a year. Expect to put a TON of time and energy into dealing with it if you want to keep your dog. Willie still has his moments, but it's nothing like it was.
-Finding the right tool for the job...Wire crates seemed to trigger tons of stress, and plastic kennels were, in the beginning, not going to work due to his destructive chewing. Once the anxiety was alleviated enough that we trusted him to only chew his own chew toys, we found that the solid, den-like walls of the varikennel were much more soothing to him, and that he was less likely to eliminate than in the wire crate, because he can't lift his leg and go OUTside the crate like he could in the wire crate. In the interim, to build up to the plastic crate, I created faux "walls" for his wire crate by basically wrapping the sides and roof of the wire crate with the smallest size blue tarp, and securing it through the grommets. For my dog, closing him in was more soothing and secure, which was how I knew he'd ultimately do better in the varikennel than the wire crate.
-Make the crate have as many positive associations as you can...which can be hard. For us, until it had walls, nothing could make Willie do anything but shy from the crate. When it became a cave-like den, he was more cautiously accepting of it. We make a point to feed him in his crate, let him roam in and out of it at will when we're home, hide favorite treats in it, and limit those treats ONLY to crate use, etc. We can't make it cozy with cushions/blankets, because he'd shred and pee on them. But other than that, we do what we can to make it pleasant as possible.
-General Obedience training - we just did a short, six-week, introductory class, kind of obedience basics. It really helped calm him to have that type of structure, and establish that we call the shots, etc. He became a less anxious dog, overall, due to obedience training. It was not a private trainer, but a class with eight other dogs/sets of owners, which was much more cost effective.
-Finding the right tool for the job..., I created faux "walls" for his wire crate by basically wrapping the sides and roof of the wire crate with the smallest size blue tarp, and securing it through the grommets. For my dog, closing him in was more soothing and secure, which was how I knew he'd ultimately do better in the varikennel than the wire crate.
I do something similar with my male GSD who is very afraid of thunder and lightning. In the summer, a 'den' basically exists full-time in the corner of the living room, made almost the way a kid will make a fort by turning over kitchen chairs and covering them with blankets. I tuck a big blanket into the corner to provide a 'roof' and sides and the minute I first made it, he made a beeline for it, like he knew just what it was.
That's his place of refuge. I think when dogs are anxious or fearful for some reason, they revert to a more primitive part of themselves, but the ultimate place of safety is a 'den.'
It's in the living room because that is where I am most of the time. For night-time thunderstorms, I've created a den in the bedroom, by overturning chairs and draping a blanket over it.
I would take some time and do some crate training when in the crate they cannot hurt the house or themselves by eating or chewing the wrong thing . Yes i would say it is time to do some crate training . good luck .
Black Mouth Curs are pioneer dogs, they're great hunters for racoon, squirrel, coyote, what have you. They're also great for HERDING CATTLE. they are extremely athletic and need a lot of exercise. These dogs are not recommended for apartments...and I cannot stress how my BMC is like a ticking time bomb if he's inside for a few days...he needs to run it off. He runs like a gazelle...he jumps at least 4 feet high off the ground...he needs companionship, likes to work with his master, and needs a job. Sounds to me like he's not getting enough exercise. Like Cesar Millan says..."exercise, discipline, affection" in that order. Take him out swimming, dock diving - get him into agility training (these dogs are really good at agility) - and if you have cattle nearby, you can get him herding. Or even hog hunting...these dogs are all around great dogs - great with kids, and women - but you have to remember what they're here for...and it's not for sleeping on the couch.
I had a dog that would chew up stuff when I was at work.
He ripped all of the padding off of a kitchen chair, chewed up an ottoman, ripped the carpet off of a cat pole.....on and on and on. I wish I had video of him ripping up that kitchen chair.....it was the kind on wheels.
So, one day I decided to leave empty boxes around the house for him to chew up instead. It worked like a charm. I came home to ripped up cardboard all over the floors instead of ripped up furniture. Just grabbed a waste basket and walked around the house picking up the small chewed up pieces.....saved the big chunks for the next day. Win/win.
I used empty toilet paper/paper towel tubes, empty kleenex and cereal boxes.......I even brought home large packing boxes from work that were as big as he was. He had a ball and I saved my furniture.
Suddenly, when he was about 2 years old he just stopped....he had finally outgrown his chewing stage. I would come home and the boxes were untouched.....so the boxes went away.
I know the experts frown on solutions like this......but I don't care......it worked perfectly for me.
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