April 19, 2011
My 1-yr-old dog is tearing up rugs when we're not at home. We discipline her but it doesn’t help. We never catch her in the act. Please help!
Full Question:
Cindy,We are almost at our wits end and need some help ! My 1 year old female AB "spayed" will at times tear up our throw rugs. She's been disciplined numerous times but nothing seems to work. She only does this when we're gone to work (9 hours). So I never caught her in the act.
First let me give you a bit of back ground.
We have a very stable male AB 7 years old and they get along just fine. She's been obedience trained "your DVDs." She's completely house broken. We purchased the E-collar and the DVD's, but we're not home when she gets a hold of the rug. We tried crating her but we want her to be able to guard the home. 9 hours in a crate seems too long. We thought about purchasing a wired muzzle. Would 9 hours be too long to keep a muzzle on her?
That being said, she's a good dog and I don't want to get rid of her but we can't keep buying rugs!
What's your suggestions? Please Help!!!
Mike
Cindy's Answer:
A one year old dog that is tearing things up is being given too much freedom. The more you let her practice this behavior, the harder it will be to break the habit.
It’s also not realistic to expect a one year old dog to protect a home. (That’s like expecting a 12 year old kid to be a security guard.)
If you have a 7 year old dog that’s well behaved in your absence, then he should be loose but the young dog should be confined for her own safety and to protect your belongings. Good dog training is about controlling the environment as much as it is about actually training the dog and if you are not home to correct behavior you don’t want, then the dog can’t be blamed for entertaining herself. If she ever does get the chance to be loose again, don’t start off with a 9 hour absence. Start with short blocks of time and work up to it, always being ready to confine her if she relapses.
I’d go back to basics and prevent her from making mistakes, use a crate and read over our groundwork article.
For future questions, you might benefit from learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website. If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q&As, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum. Our website has over 16,000 pages and it’s very likely you’ll find the information you are looking for. I hope this helps.
Cindy Rhodes
It’s also not realistic to expect a one year old dog to protect a home. (That’s like expecting a 12 year old kid to be a security guard.)
If you have a 7 year old dog that’s well behaved in your absence, then he should be loose but the young dog should be confined for her own safety and to protect your belongings. Good dog training is about controlling the environment as much as it is about actually training the dog and if you are not home to correct behavior you don’t want, then the dog can’t be blamed for entertaining herself. If she ever does get the chance to be loose again, don’t start off with a 9 hour absence. Start with short blocks of time and work up to it, always being ready to confine her if she relapses.
I’d go back to basics and prevent her from making mistakes, use a crate and read over our groundwork article.
For future questions, you might benefit from learning to use our SEARCH function, which is located in the top left corner of every page of the website. If you type in your key words or question it will find you articles, Q&As, free streaming video and links to threads on our discussion forum. Our website has over 16,000 pages and it’s very likely you’ll find the information you are looking for. I hope this helps.
Cindy Rhodes
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