My puppy had a fun half hour!

[Gremlyn]

EDIT: I've been getting a lot of people offering advice on training to prevent this sort of thing, and while I appreciate it, this is very out of the norm for our puppy and the pics are presented merely for the humour of the situation. The pup is quite well trained and well behaved 99% of the time.

See pics:

Luckily this is our couch in the backroom that we don't care much about. The event occurred in the 30 mins between my wife leaving for the gym and me getting home from work.

 

[Mermaid]

I like to call this... PUPPY MADNESS!!!

I had a neighbor whose bored Siberian Husky pup demolished his old leather sofa in an afternoon. After that, it was doggie day care for the pup.

Good thing they're so cute.

 

[Gremlyn]

I found her bone under the sofa cushion, I assume she was digging on the couch to "bury" it and must have caught the fabric and tore it... the rest was history.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Have you renamed the puppy yet? I suggest ''Lil Bastard.

 

[Sean]

I think we need a pic of the offender.

That is some good work for only 30 min!!Time for a couch cover.

 

[shelly_belly]

I'd get a muzzle. I've had puppies eat/destroy shoes, carpet, furniture, baseboards, doors, walls, plants, purses, clothes, money, etc. You name it, they'll cut their teeth on it. Especially if left alone. I got a muzzle when we got our last puppy. Saved me a lot of money.

 

[ShortSnoutBrewing]

At least you didn't watch it happen and have no way of doing anything about it. When we first got our pugs I put a web cam on them a few times. One day I watched one of them to tear into their bed and had foam all over. I had to laugh and cry at the same time.

 

[Gremlyn]

I think we need a pic of the offender.

That is some good work for only 30 min!!Time for a couch cover.

Me and the pup:

 

[Mermaid]

LOL! She's really cute.. Yeah.. hard not to forgive that face.

My dog has eaten a few pairs of shoes (and boots) in the years we've been together.

Mostly I think he gets pissed off at me about something and this is how he shows it.

Then he does this cute thing where he raises 1 ear at a time and looks at me with this "you're not going to be mad at me about this are you?" and well... I'm a sucker for bad boys what can I say? (My dog is an 11 year old American Eskimo)

 

[surreal_trip]

I'd get a muzzle. I've had puppies eat/destroy shoes, carpet, furniture, baseboards, doors, walls, plants, purses, clothes, money, etc. You name it, they'll cut their teeth on it. Especially if left alone. I got a muzzle when we got our last puppy. Saved me a lot of money.

Boo on your choice... Meh i crate trained haha then kitchen trained and now i leave my pup to run the house while were at work... he goes through about a kilo of rawhide and ham hock a day haha!

 

[MetallHed]

crate training for the win. best thing you can do for your dog.

 

[TomSD]

Mine has been really good so far. One time though I noticed some wire on the floor in the living room and moved his bed to find he had destroyed the heavy power cord (similar to ones used with a computer) that went to my elliptical. Needless to say I was watching his mood and poops for a couple days after that, heh.

I can agree with the bone comment though... seems it is not just the bored factor but there is also some kind of OCD component involved. Once they fixate on something, whether it be on purpose (like a shoe) or on accident (like buring a bone in a couch), destruction is soon to follow.

 

[JetSmooth]

My brother in law had a timber wolf/shepherd mix. Most beautiful dog I have ever seen. Also the most destructive. She ate a MATTRESS. Gone. Nothing left but springs. Also chewed the cable box off the wall. Three or four cell phones.

But you could toss a raw egg at her and she'd snap it up out of the air without breaking it, roll it around in her mouth a few times before gently cracking it with her teeth and swallowing the insides.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Cute dog! Looks a lot like our little man (we got him about 3 months ago). No major destruction yet - but we do crate train...

 

[Homercidal]

Gremlyn, it's YOUR fault for leaving him all alone when he loves you SOOOO much!

Or he just wanted to bury that bone!

We crate trained ours. The first, Yellow Lab, has always been good. She will use a crate no problem now, but prefers her open bed or the floor. Our second, some strange mix, chewed a few things. Nothing major. And he still prefers his crate most of the time.

 

[D-Ring]

Gremlyn,
Remember on a different thread I told you I had the same mix? She did the same thing to a couch! Actually it was a bit worse, she tore almost the entire arm off. That is why we ended up getting her a playmate.

 

[dndlyon]

I teach obedience classes on the side, and this is one of the most common issues people have with pups. It's a good thing they have that "baby puppy" face going for them!

Dogs who destroy are usually just bored - they need mental and physical exercise, especially as pups but adults, too. And crate train them if you can to protect them (and your checkbook at the vet) for what they might destroy while they are learning to be adult dogs

 

[Yooper]

I've lost more than a couple of items of furniture and clothes/shoes to dogs over the years. It's funny, but the dog we have now never did that. Never. He doesn't chew a bit, although he seems to be the only lab that I've had that doesn't. The good thing is, puppies grow up.

Here's a picture of my favorite dog on our pontoon boat:

 

[Beerrific]

crate training for the win. best thing you can do for your dog.

Same here. My dogs love their crates. In the morning I feed them and let them out, after that they pretty much live in their crates and I shut them before I leave. We have tried leaving them out, but they went to town on some magazines, etc. I figure they like the crates so much I might as well leave them in there.

 

[MetallHed]

ours go into their crates voluntarily to sleep all day..

..GD lazy saints.. lol

eat. poop. eat more. play for 15 minutes. sleep for 10 hours. repeat.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Ohhh Look. You are getting a new sofa! How sweet that you shared.

Best bet is to wait until the pup grows out of his teething habit.

 

[david_42]

Hah! Been there. Ex-GF's dog tore up a futon. Filled the sunken livingroom with fluff. Got a free trip to the shelter, as XGF had left the dog with me a year earlier and I was really tired of having it harass my other dogs.

 

[steinsato]

We adopted a Border Collie last November and within 2 weeks he had chewed a hole in our leather couch. Sad thing is, we still haven't replaced the damn thing.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

We adopted a Border Collie last November and within 2 weeks he had chewed a hole in our leather couch. Sad thing is, we still haven't replaced the damn thing.

The dog or the couch?

My dog loves to chew but for whatever reason won't chew when he's home alone. Give him a brand new rawhide chip and leave and it will be untouched when you return. But by 7:30 every night he'll be begging for the rawhide and finish it a few minutes later. He's REALLY good about not chewing anything that's not his. He's just always been like that, it wasn't from any special training or anything.

Used to have as German Shepard that ate the gf's clothes but never mine.

RE: dog chews; I had always heard Nylabones were good for dogs but my dog has cracked his 'main' tooth on each side (canine?) on Nylabones.

 

[TipsyDragon]

pup's chew things for any number of reason. it could be separation anxiety. their pack is gone and they get up set and tare things up. it could be boredom. if thats the case get the little guy lots of cool toys to play with. they could be teething. in that case a good chew toy will usually keep them from eating your possessions. the important thing is to teach your new pup what is for chewing and playing and what is not. to a pup your shoes and that rawhide chew bone are the same. you have to teach them the difference. sticking them in a box all day is not the answer.

 

[steinsato]

The dog or the couch?

The couch of course. I love the damn dog. Even though he has also eaten about 5 pairs of shoes as well. He does these things in the mornings before I wake up or while I'm in the shower.

 

[Gremlyn]

Gremlyn,
Remember on a different thread I told you I had the same mix? She did the same thing to a couch! Actually it was a bit worse, she tore almost the entire arm off. That is why we ended up getting her a playmate.

I do remember. We've talked about getting a playmate for ours and fully intend to, but probably not until the start of next year as we'll be doing quite a bit of traveling and our we feel our pup should at least get to a year old being an only puppy. She's very socialised so it shouldn't be a problem adding a second dog to the household at any point.

I teach obedience classes on the side, and this is one of the most common issues people have with pups. It's a good thing they have that "baby puppy" face going for them!

Dogs who destroy are usually just bored - they need mental and physical exercise, especially as pups but adults, too. And crate train them if you can to protect them (and your checkbook at the vet) for what they might destroy while they are learning to be adult dogs

She's had her moments of boredom destruction in the past, but I really think this was just a random occurence. After my wife got back from the gym she told me she had heard our up doing something a little earlier and saw there was a small tear in the arm of the couch. She thought nothing of it and went out and then I came back to what you saw in the pics. That small tear I assume caught when she started to dig for the bone again and it all went down hill quickly. We don't care much about that couch anyway, it was a freebie from some friends of ours, and we could probably repair it fairly easily (thought it would never look the same).

Ohhh Look. You are getting a new sofa! How sweet that you shared.

Best bet is to wait until the pup grows out of his teething habit.

My wife does want a new love seat for the living room, so she is now on a crusade to move our futon to replace this couch... ugh! I want my backyard done first!

As for the teething, she's 9 months now and seems to have all her adult teeth in. She also have plenty of awesome, tough stuff to chew on, including a fairly good sized marrow bone (started off frozen and raw, and she got to clean it out - man was she happy), and a good number of chew resistant toys. To me that's further evidence that she just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time with the tear.

TBQH, when I saw what happened when I first got home I couldn't stop laughing. The pup seemed so happy with herself too, she knows not what she does!

 

[jgln]

Good......Luck!!!


That dog looks exactly like our dog only she is no where that bad. We have a cheap old throw rug we use to cover the hole in the carpet (runs arouns a lot) she likes to eat and hump now and then and she ate my fiancee's pants once.

 

[jgln]

Ohhh Look. You are getting a new sofa! How sweet that you shared.

Best bet is to wait until the pup grows out of his teething habit.

Nice until the dog eats the new sofa.

 

[Soulrebel]

Another vote for crate training. Both my dog love thier crates and put themselves to bed, even if they have been in them all day. Second best part about crate training is ease of travel, they always have thier own space. Spend a hundred bucks once, and it will pay for itself over and over. Or spend a hundred bucks over and over replacing things they destroy. Boredom is a MF'er