Coming home from the Monday morning water run has become a bit of a stressful thing since Tobie decided he could chew and scatter whatever he wanted if Uncle Joel wasn’t home. I cleared out the lower cabinets and bathroom of targets of opportunity, sealed up the kitchen trash, closed the bedroom door – and he still found things worthy of destruction. I don’t think it’s anxiety, this is just the way he passes empty time and I expect he’ll outgrow it. Even when I go to Ian’s to shower, he carries firewood away from the woodstove and chews it up in the main room while he’s waiting for me to finish – and then he knows exactly where I am so it’s not separation anxiety. Just a bored puppy.
My arrivals have added to his stress, since I don’t take coming inside to find the cabin trashed…well. But it may be we’ve come to an agreement on that? Maybe? This time, and the last time I left him alone for a few hours, he contented himself with his own massive pile of chew toys – and of course got praised lavishly when I found he hadn’t laid waste to my stuff.
Leave it the hell alone.
Upon thoughtful reflection, Tobie may have decided that lavish praise, hugs and treats are preferable to getting yelled at and swatted.
Nothing wrong . He’s just a pup . You shoulda’ seen me when I was a pup . He’ll grow out of it eventually .
I’m no dog expert, (and I don’t play one on the Internet) but I would think hard about that “fetch” thing. Start indoors until he gets the idea, and then move it outside where you will quickly have created a situation where he can be trusted off leash. Wear him out with the game just before you leave him alone, and he will sleep while you are gone. Sleeping dogs are GOOD dogs.
K9 101. They operate on a reward basis. It’s up to you to figure out how and what gets rewarded. Nutshell.
Oh and i forgot…. You’re the most important thing in his life.
yup, big puppy. FWIW we just let our Tibetan Mastiff puppy chew on the firewood. It made a mess, but as long as he stuck to the firewood and not to furniture or anything of the like it was handle-able.