It took me a while to figure it out with Sampson. He was always such a good boy and very rarely chewed anything (well except for that footrest on the breakfast bar but we didn’t like it anyway.) Chet and I have a fairly quiet life and Sampson was raised in that lifestyle and he is probably one of the most mellow dogs you will ever meet.
But I noticed one time after we had a house full of people, that Sampson had taken one of his toys and ripped a hole in it and pulled all the “fluff” out. I thought for a moment and realized he always did that after we had a larger than normal crowd (such as what gathers for the holidays.) Then it dawned on me that because of our normally quiet lifestyle a crowd with the noise and commotion that goes along with it, could be somewhat stressful for him. Rather than locking him away from the crowd, we make sure he has plenty of inexpensive toys that he can pull the stuffing out of. Sometimes I even pick the stuffing up and shove it back inside so he can pull it out again!
Delilah loves to pull the stuffing out too, but not in the same way Sampson does. You can tell when he wants your help too, because he brings the toy to you and he tugs on it, when he hears the first ripping sound he pulls all the harder. They both love to find the little squeaker and “disable” it; then they play with the plastic bubble and will actually toss it up in the air.
I don't know what happened; it came like that. Honest.
I love the way he is looking at this out of the corner of his eye, as if to say, “I didn’t do it.”
Whoo, that relieved some stress and now I can sleep.
It never fails, as soon as I put the vacuum away they tear up a toy!
Mmmm that was one tasty toy!
As I said, Delilah even likes to get in on it; although I think she might be prone to eat the fluff!
So don’t get angry when your little bundle of fur if he/she tears something up, there may be something that is stressing them out or maybe they are bored; try to encourage them to chew their own toys and provide them with lots of inexpensive toys that they can tear up.
It’s nice to think of it this way. I try not to react when I see things destroyed – just talking in a calm manner because its obviously happened prior to me arriving home and Ella obviously knows she did something she wasn’t supposed to. I need to keep things in mind, especially because we’re weaning them off their crates – which went away 2 weeks ago, and today’s the day they get access to the entire upstairs, not just the bedroom. Next week is the whole house. . . here’s hoping it goes well
Megan,
Keep in mind too, Ella may be experiencing separation anxiety from you and Matt being gone. I would give them both LOTS of chew toys, soft toys (for ripping and tearing) you may also want to try a kong for them (if you think one won’t take it away from the other and start a war!) If you CATCH her destroying something of yours, tell her no, take it away and give her one of her toys. She will begin to understand that chewing/destroying is ok as long as it is hers. 🙂
The thing is I never catch them in the act since they don’t usually do anything while we’re home. . .And they have toys, they’ll even be in the room with them before I leave, and the toys are in the same place when we get home – didn’t touch them. . . .Day 3 of entire upstairs access has yielded no destruction other than a tear in the comforter (which I’m not sure if it was on purpose or happened while roughhousing). So its looking good. . .
Good job Ella and Brutus!!