Our dog is 9 years old, and twice now, maybe out of bordom, has chewed the vinyl siding off of around the front door, and has demolished a Chevy Blazer by chewing around the entire wheel well, ripping the mirror/houseing off and eating the mudflap. On another occasion he chewed aluminum trim off of another house. We live in the country, we have horses, cats...he has plenty to do but on occasion does things like this and my first thought is to get rid of him but my kids like him. Has anyone else experienced this destructive behavior and found out why?
2006-08-01 07:32:26 · 4 answers · asked by Princess J 1 in Pets ➔ Dogs
Was he locked out at the time? Shepherds are very attached to their families he may have had an unusual bout of separation anxiety. If your home let him in when he asks. If you can invest in an indoor or large outdoor kennel for times you'll be gone extra long. Watch for them used in the paper for lower prices. If he's usually fine just watch for times when he really wants to go with you or gets extra excited when you're getting ready to go. Those are the times you may want to kennel him with a chewie of somekind. Good luck
P.S. I have the same problem just when I think she can stay loose while I run to the store she tears something up and it's back to the kennel
2006-08-01 08:29:17 · answer #1 · answered by emily 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Boredom, loneliness and no one was there to tell him not to. To a dog, there's no difference between chewing a dead stick and a $25,000 truck.
Put up a dog run for him and make sure he's getting plenty of exercise, training and human attention. Shepherds are very much "people-dogs" and love to have a job to do.
These are the books that I recommend to my students; you can get them on Amazon.com
What All Good Dogs Should Know – Volhard http://www.volhard.com/
Good Owners, Great Dogs - Brian Kilcommins
Dog Tricks : Eighty-Eight Challenging Activities for Your Dog from World-Class Trainers by Haggerty and Benjamin
Don't Shoot the Dog - Pryor
Training Your Dog: The Step by Step Method - Volhard
Dog Problems - Benjamin
Cesar's Way - Cesar Millan
Also, watch the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. Cesar Millan is the best trainer I've ever seen on TV.
http://www.dogpsychologycenter.com/
2006-08-01 09:12:39 · answer #2 · answered by Danger, Will Robinson! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your dog is BORED. What exactly does he have to do? Big space for an animal is well, just that a big space. Have your kids leash him and take for a walk, a good game of fetch, but some sort of structured activity for a bout an hour.
2006-08-01 07:41:57 · answer #3 · answered by L B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
we use to have german shepards too. Aparently this is justy something they like to do...eat houses. We had to get rid of ours before they completly destroied out house and yard.
2006-08-01 07:36:52 · answer #4 · answered by firefrons 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋