Dog Community

chewing, digging, driving me nuts

Posted : 9/22/2006 9:02:22 PM

I have a 10 month old Belgium Malinois (sp?) mix and his behavior is driving me crazy. We try to leave him in his crate (his house that he loves) during the day, but want to leave him out with our lab. The last 3 times we've left him out of the cage, 5 months ago, 3 months ago, yesterday, he's dug into our carpeting in the exact same spot. The hole was originally 2" in diameter, then 4", now it's 5" and my wife and I are convinced he's never going to be able to be left out of his crate. At night, he usually sleeps great but in the past few days, he wanders and will chew anything he isn't supposed to. We have 5-6 nylabones and other chew toys around the house for him, but he chews drywall, wood, and he's ruined about $500 worth of shoes.

I'm tired of having the crate in the corner of the living room, near the front door and wish I could leave him out all day. He goes in at 7:30 and my wife comes home for lunch at 12. I'm home by 3:30 to take them out. I don't know if there are any tricks to get him to stop digging or chewing on shoes/drywall/wood. We are going to keep all shoes in the closet, even though it's a hassle.

Any advice would be helpful.

Vinia

Posted : 9/22/2006 11:41:30 PM

First of all, I have to say- I feel your pain! It sounds exactly like what Pocket's been doing.

Does he get a walk/playtime before he goes into his crate in the morning? It sounds like he most probably is just bored and finding things to do.

I think that really the best solution is to just keep him crated- is there any reason why you want him to be out?

mondayblues

Posted : 9/23/2006 4:24:58 AM

How much exercise/playtime does he get?

JoeyBear

Posted : 9/23/2006 2:05:15 PM

He gets a lot of playtime and excersise in the morning. My wife takes him for a 1 mile walk and they get 30 minutes of time to wrestle and play in the yard before we both go to work.

We want to get rid of the crate because it's ugly and we'd like to leave him out because our other dog is left out all day. The crate is comfortable with blankets and nylabones, so it's not bad for him to be in it, but we're tired of having it up. When we have left him out of the crate, we leave the door to it open so he can go in at any time. When he's in trouble, he runs right in and will sit there until he's forgiven

jones

Posted : 9/23/2006 3:34:26 PM

Asking a 10 mo old Belgian Mal to behave when left loose in the house may be asking too much. Adolescence is prime time for chewing and destruction. You might just have to continue crating for another 6-8mo (or more, depending), which really isn't that long in the grand scheme of things.

Timbersmom

Posted : 10/5/2006 3:22:38 PM

young dogs can be overwhelmed by having the freedom of the whole house. it actually makes them insecure. they don't understand what they're supposed to be doing. Timber was very nervous the first time I left him loose in the house. he was 9 or 10 months old. I went back to crating for another month and then tried again. it took until he was about 13 months before I could leave him uncrated all the time.

Eric Mies

Posted : 10/6/2006 10:39:03 AM

I hear ya, I can't wait to get rid of the crate in my kitchen but it's probably going to be there another 6 months as I;m going thru somethign similar with my 9MO.

She did the normal puppy chewing and after was great. Then, out of the blue, a few eeks ago she started chewing shoes, belts and anything else she could get her mouth on. After some research and talking to peopel here I learned that most dogs go through a second 'destructo' phase between 8-12 months. You just have to give them lots of excersise (basically tire them out), give them plenty of chewy things like bones and go back to watching them 100% and making sure theres nothing for them to chew around. In your case I think the only answer is crating her.

I'm not sure what a Belgium Malinois is but with some breeds, at around 8-12 months, they start to grow there adult nose/face/mussle. Like mine - she is part bulldog and is starting to develop the bulldog under bite. I think collies are another. Anyway, the point is the jaw/nose/mussle starts to grow and they need to chew things to strengthen the muscles and tendons - could be the cause for yours too.

Alisia Jezierny

Posted : 10/6/2006 11:27:09 AM

If your crate's a pain in the butt to take apart and put back together like mine is, and you're looking for a place to put your dog when you can't watch him, do what I did and get an ex-pen. It just folds open then folds back up... very easy! Plus, it's not as cramped as a crate.

Eric Mies

Posted : 10/6/2006 12:43:11 PM

Great idea alisia!

Alisia Jezierny

Posted : 10/6/2006 1:49:08 PM

ORIGINAL: Presley
Great idea alisia!

I hear dog.com has them cheap[

]

spiritdogs

Posted : 10/6/2006 4:48:04 PM

Malinois are dogs that mature late. He's in his second chewing stage at the moment, which is a natural part of canine development. I would suggest dog day care, or a dog walker to come and give him more exercise during the day. Right now, he needs appropriate chew objects, exercise, and no freedom in areas he can destroy. Sorry, but we all go through the same thing with adolescent dogs. [:'(] Things should get better the older he gets, so long as he doesn't get to practice the bad stuff.
BTW, why did you get such a high drive dog if you don't have a really active lifestyle? Didn't anyone tell you about these guys?

Rachel

Posted : 10/7/2006 10:53:44 AM

Everybody here has great comments! Make sure at this time you also reinforce the "no" and replace whatever he is chewing on with an appropriate item. It's like reteaching them what you taught them 5 months ago. He'll grow out of it, but until then crating is a good answer to save yourself some heartache.

kpwlee

Posted : 10/7/2006 11:25:11 AM

He's young still and sounds like my dog in that he likes his crate, Bugsy is about 14 mos old and we are just starting to leave him out of his crate when we go out (limiting him to the kitchen and a sitting room) for short periods. He is noticeably anxious when we leave him out but we have been successful for up to 2.5 hrs. However sometimes he is still too wound up to leave him out and it would be asking for trouble.
As for the shoes - Bugs is a champion chewer - leave it out and lose track of where he is and it could be gone in an instant. Put everything away that you want intact. To me that is part of puppydom and it has been a nuisance until it becomes standard practice.

Hang in there we found a hugew difference between 10 and 12 months and each month gets better now.