Re: chewing....help!!!

In Reply to: chewing....help!!!
Category:   Behavior Problems
Posted by:  Leslie
Posted on:  July 27, 2002 at 20:38:10

: My year old male JRT is in a crate at night and outside in the backyard all day. We fixed the fence so he can't dig underneath, and that solved one problem. Now he is chewing anything in the backyard and destroying everything. exe. my patio furniture cushions, kids toys, blow up swimming pool, chair legs, etc. I bought him raw hide bones thinking that would solve the need to chew, but an hour after he had the bones he was eating my chair cushions again..... help, I don't know what to do. He didn't start doing this until recently.
: thanks

Response:

Hi Leslie,

The answer is one word...BOREDOM! This dog is bored. Now most of us would think how can that be? Gee, he has run of the backyard all day!

Well dogs won't exercise themselves, sure they might run around a bit when they're first let out but 8-10 hours left by themselves is an eternity! This is where many people find that their terrier has 1) dug out of the yard, 2) jumped or climbed the fence 3) has destroyed anything it can get its paws and jaws on.

You have a couple of options here. You can 1) give this dog more structured exercise (a dog on its own won't go jog for a mile or two), 2) have someone come in mid-day to spend some time playing with him (a half hour game of fetch would be nice) 3) ship him off to doggy day-care maybe 1-2 days a week, 4) invest in a kennel run and make sure it's escape-proof. With 4 you will still need to meet this dog's exercise requirements, he will get just as bored in a kennel run but he won't be able to destroy your yard.