chewing??

S

Shelby's mom

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We started leaving our 20 month old sheltie out of her crate for the entire day when we are at work. She was great for the first few months, but lately she started chewing furniture and other items when we were gone. We have since put her back in her crate when we are gone for an extended time. She is fine for short durations. I don't know why she started chewing all of a sudden, she has plenty of toys and chewies. She never chews anything when we are home so how do I know when it is safe to try again? I know she doesn't mind being crated but I still feel bad doing it. We had a previous sheltie for 13 years and never had chewing issues. Training Shelby has been 200% more difificult than
our previous sheltie. She is an extreemly determined pup but we love her tons.
 
If you feel like letting her out of her crate again for the day, I would start in small places, such as a smaller room or an x-pen.

She is chewing because she is bored, probably.

How much exercise does she get before you leave for the day? Sometimes getting them mentally and/or physically tired will help them to relax while you are gone.

There are also some great suggestions on toys that keep the dogs occupied while you are gone.

Some ideas that people do is instead of feeding your dog breakfast, you can freeze the breakfast in a kong the night before. Then give your dog the frozen kong. This way they have to work at getting their breakfast after you leave. But then, they may have to go to the bathroom afterwards, so you have to make sure they are not left out too long after that.
 
I have a similar issue with my two year old girl. I do what Dani says and freeze peanut butter in a kong for her before we leave. She also now gets a 15 minute walk before we leave in the mornings. She isn't as bad as she was (she used to chew the walls!) but she still likes to chew. In fact today she chewed up some shoes that were accidentally left out.

The best I can recommend is to restrict access to things that we might chew. We put EVERYTHING away before we leave, and I covered the wall corners that might tempt her.
 
Thanks for the suggeations. I agree that she is getting bored when we are gone. I have stuffed her kong but that doesn't last her long. She is so smart it gets her in trouble. This is a dog that figured out how to unscrew the round dog food ball (that drops the food as they push it) and eats the food out. I think we just have to try again in a few months.
 
Shelby's mom said:
Thanks for the suggeations. I agree that she is getting bored when we are gone. I have stuffed her kong but that doesn't last her long. She is so smart it gets her in trouble. This is a dog that figured out how to unscrew the round dog food ball (that drops the food as they push it) and eats the food out. I think we just have to try again in a few months.
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Did you freeze the kong with the food in it. This makes it very difficult to get the food out, rather than just stuffing it.
 
How long do you leave her. I always crate my dogs when we're gone, but they're never in their crates for more tha 4-5 hours.
 
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