My dog is overly attached to one of her toys...but she also tries eating it!? (shepherd, toy)
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Hello everyone! I needed some help so I'm hoping you guys can help me
My dog has a toy hot dog that she loved before but she started chewing/ripping it apart/eating it lately so I put it in the cabinet in my room. I did that a few weeks ago and she didn't think anything of it. I guess she somehow smelled it a few weeks later and goes crazy for it. She'll try to jump and reach the top cabinet, stare at me and get annoyed, climb my chair, etc
I tell her to stop but she won't listen. I thought maybe she just wanted attention so I played with her for about an hour, nope she still did it an hour after we played. It's getting annoying and I can't just throw the hot dog away because if she keeps doing it all day then what am I gonna do if I get sick of telling her no!? This is what the toy looks like http://i.imgur.com/e4kmv9tl.jpg?1
Is this strange behavior? I've never seen go crazy over one toy like this!
It's totally normal for a dog with a strong drive. My first GSD would do that all the time. If I put the ball in the drawer he'd sit and stare at the drawer. She can smell the toy. Throw it away and problem solved. Once they start to chew up a toy it needs to be tossed. They will continue to chew/eat it until it's gone. Get her a new toy that's tougher like a kong.
Throw that toy away and don't buy anymore cheap toys like that that are made in China, especially since she is eating them. Almost all toys tested out of China are contaminated with lead, cadmium, and other toxic poisons.
Buy her some good rubber Kong toys that are made in the USA (read the bottom back label as some of their products are Chinese). A Shepherd cannot destroy them and they wont poison her or get bound up in her gut because she cant swallow chunks.
My dog loved to play with the toys that squeeked. I have a big dog, so I had to buy good quality squeeky toys. Left unsupervised, the squeeker was always dissected. This got expensive. I taught my dog to be gentle with the toy. I called the toys that squeeked a "baby" I would tell him to be gentle with the baby, when he would begin to be destructive, I tell him no and take the toy. When he is squeeking slow and carefully, I repeat the word gentle. I also taught him "it's mine" which meant playtime was up and the toy was going to be put up.
If the dog is so driven for a specific toy, you can use that toy for training. I would toss the hotdog, as others have said, the dog can smell it in the drawer.
She needs nice long walks to get the excess energy OUT. Even a house and a yard is a cage. Dogs walk. It's what they do.
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