Living with a dog who destroys everything.
Moving into our new house we always wanted to get a puppy for the kids to grow up with.
6 months later we decided to go for it and get a puppy. Scott wanted a Border Collie and I wanted a German Shepard... so after a lot of searching I found a cross between the both! We travelled up country to go and view our newest member and we instantly fell in love with him. We went to a rescue farm who still had all the mothers litter there along with the mother herself so it was lovely to see them all together. Jacob loved running up and down the kennels with the puppies all around him jumping for his attention! There were two puppies who were absolutely in love with him but one was already requested from another family and the other was our pooch now. I still keep in contact with the family now, just to let them know how Marlo (the dog) is doing and they give any advice they can if needed. It's lovely to know that they truly love looking after animals and still are keen to find out how they are doing years after they have rehomed them.
Being a Shepard/Collie cross, two of the most intelligent working dog, as you can imagine if not worked enough bad habit's can start occurring. The usual puppy antics came out to play, chewing what he could and when ever he didn't get attention every second of every day. Which is entirely impossible with kids but he got plenty of love. When we got him I was only working part time a few hours a couple of days a week so he was always by my side when I was at home.. a couple of months later I started full time, which is when more of the destruction happened as he was obviously bored and lonely. Getting bigger every day, the more exercise and mental stimulation he craved.
When he was about 6-8 months old we came across some problems with his behaviour as an area we used to take him he was attacked by dogs on various occasions....which I'd like to add he was on a lead and these dogs weren't nor where there owners apologetic in any way. From that he started getting nervous around other dogs and we made the mistake of keeping him away from any areas where it was busy and ended up excluding him from socialising with anyone or dog. We thought what we were doing was right but it turns out we were wrong. By doing this we caused him to have huge anxiety and whenever he saw new people or dogs he was soo scared they were going to hurt him he sometimes would try and nip them first as a warning because he was scared.
We ended up getting him a one to one trainer who taught us everything we needed to know which turns out its more training for humans than for dogs, as dogs only behave according to what they get taught/ sense from owners (in most cases). We learnt how to introduce him to new people/dogs and how to walk on a lead properly without the pulling or barking at everything moving or anything insight that terrified him. The training has really shown us that dogs need more mental stimulation than physical exercise to actually wear them out. We are still wary when he is off lead around other dogs and people as he is still a bit fearful if they rush up to him or if someone tries to pet him without him consenting to it - we have found a ball is the perfect way for him to accept people.
Our house is only 2 years newly built and it is destroyed! This is a list of some of damages he has made;
-Dug holes is most of the walls in the hallways
-Eaten the entire bannister
-Nibbled at most door frames
-Ripped the hallway carpet up
-Ripped the kitchen lino up
-Eaten multiple plastic plates and cups and other kitchen ware
-Ruined the stair and upstairs carpets with weeing everywhere when he was a puppy and with excitement or fear!
-Eaten multiple dog beds and shoes.
Still to this day at nearly 2 years old it is still a wonder what he is going to eat next. Its not usually 'big' damages anymore but its still a damage. It's not even if he doesn't have a walk for the day, we haven't found a pattern to his destruction as some days he can have a real mental work out and huge long walk but we pop out for an hour and come home to find something destroyed. We have various toys we leave out for him to give him something to play with while we are gone.
He is such a loving dog and just craves attention, he really does think he is my baby! He absolutely adores the kids and loves it when Jacob involves him in playtime.
Wondering when it will all end or get easier. As he isn't as bad now I am on maternity leave and at home a lot with him again, but I do find this makes it worse as he almost misses me a lot more when I do pop out! What is going to happen when I go back to work? Having a dog really is a full time job in itself and it 100% harder than having kids! It puts a strain on us as a family, I can get so worked up with all the damages as we work so hard to buy the things we have and we want to start doing our house up but is there any point? It's also very frustrating as he is such a loving dog and he knows when he has done something wrong as he will just lay in his bed instead of jumping all over us. This makes it harder to stay mad at him cause he really does give you those puppy dog eyes that are too hard to resist giving in!
We have spent soo much money is fixing what he has damaged and we are no where near finished fixing all of the damages as we have left it until we know he isn't going to touch that area again. Looking into doggy day cares and day training, its wondering what is best for him without costing us an absolute fortune. We want what is best for him but also we do give him so much of our time, is it just his personality will he ever get better? Will he be better with different owners?
All these decisions are so hard to make when you cant tell the future and are in love with him as he is a member of our family.
Does anyone have any advice or tips on what we can do to stop the destruction he causes?
6 months later we decided to go for it and get a puppy. Scott wanted a Border Collie and I wanted a German Shepard... so after a lot of searching I found a cross between the both! We travelled up country to go and view our newest member and we instantly fell in love with him. We went to a rescue farm who still had all the mothers litter there along with the mother herself so it was lovely to see them all together. Jacob loved running up and down the kennels with the puppies all around him jumping for his attention! There were two puppies who were absolutely in love with him but one was already requested from another family and the other was our pooch now. I still keep in contact with the family now, just to let them know how Marlo (the dog) is doing and they give any advice they can if needed. It's lovely to know that they truly love looking after animals and still are keen to find out how they are doing years after they have rehomed them.
Being a Shepard/Collie cross, two of the most intelligent working dog, as you can imagine if not worked enough bad habit's can start occurring. The usual puppy antics came out to play, chewing what he could and when ever he didn't get attention every second of every day. Which is entirely impossible with kids but he got plenty of love. When we got him I was only working part time a few hours a couple of days a week so he was always by my side when I was at home.. a couple of months later I started full time, which is when more of the destruction happened as he was obviously bored and lonely. Getting bigger every day, the more exercise and mental stimulation he craved.
When he was about 6-8 months old we came across some problems with his behaviour as an area we used to take him he was attacked by dogs on various occasions....which I'd like to add he was on a lead and these dogs weren't nor where there owners apologetic in any way. From that he started getting nervous around other dogs and we made the mistake of keeping him away from any areas where it was busy and ended up excluding him from socialising with anyone or dog. We thought what we were doing was right but it turns out we were wrong. By doing this we caused him to have huge anxiety and whenever he saw new people or dogs he was soo scared they were going to hurt him he sometimes would try and nip them first as a warning because he was scared.
We ended up getting him a one to one trainer who taught us everything we needed to know which turns out its more training for humans than for dogs, as dogs only behave according to what they get taught/ sense from owners (in most cases). We learnt how to introduce him to new people/dogs and how to walk on a lead properly without the pulling or barking at everything moving or anything insight that terrified him. The training has really shown us that dogs need more mental stimulation than physical exercise to actually wear them out. We are still wary when he is off lead around other dogs and people as he is still a bit fearful if they rush up to him or if someone tries to pet him without him consenting to it - we have found a ball is the perfect way for him to accept people.
Our house is only 2 years newly built and it is destroyed! This is a list of some of damages he has made;
-Dug holes is most of the walls in the hallways
-Eaten the entire bannister
-Nibbled at most door frames
-Ripped the hallway carpet up
-Ripped the kitchen lino up
-Eaten multiple plastic plates and cups and other kitchen ware
-Ruined the stair and upstairs carpets with weeing everywhere when he was a puppy and with excitement or fear!
-Eaten multiple dog beds and shoes.
Still to this day at nearly 2 years old it is still a wonder what he is going to eat next. Its not usually 'big' damages anymore but its still a damage. It's not even if he doesn't have a walk for the day, we haven't found a pattern to his destruction as some days he can have a real mental work out and huge long walk but we pop out for an hour and come home to find something destroyed. We have various toys we leave out for him to give him something to play with while we are gone.
He is such a loving dog and just craves attention, he really does think he is my baby! He absolutely adores the kids and loves it when Jacob involves him in playtime.
Wondering when it will all end or get easier. As he isn't as bad now I am on maternity leave and at home a lot with him again, but I do find this makes it worse as he almost misses me a lot more when I do pop out! What is going to happen when I go back to work? Having a dog really is a full time job in itself and it 100% harder than having kids! It puts a strain on us as a family, I can get so worked up with all the damages as we work so hard to buy the things we have and we want to start doing our house up but is there any point? It's also very frustrating as he is such a loving dog and he knows when he has done something wrong as he will just lay in his bed instead of jumping all over us. This makes it harder to stay mad at him cause he really does give you those puppy dog eyes that are too hard to resist giving in!
We have spent soo much money is fixing what he has damaged and we are no where near finished fixing all of the damages as we have left it until we know he isn't going to touch that area again. Looking into doggy day cares and day training, its wondering what is best for him without costing us an absolute fortune. We want what is best for him but also we do give him so much of our time, is it just his personality will he ever get better? Will he be better with different owners?
All these decisions are so hard to make when you cant tell the future and are in love with him as he is a member of our family.
Does anyone have any advice or tips on what we can do to stop the destruction he causes?
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