Dog destruction - what has your dog destroyed?

We came home one day to discover that Herbie had eaten one of these http://bluemooncandles.files.wordpress.com/2008/09... .

He also ate;

2 sofa's.

A coffee table.

An armchair.

A paper-mache dog.

3 pairs of designer shoes.

A coat similar to yours.

He climbed the book cases and got himself a collection of easter eggs.

3/4 telephone wires.

Several hairbrushes.

A flute case.

Pulled our french door curtains through the cat flap.

2 pairs of glasses....

I could go on and on and on.....

I can understand your anger. I get so frustrated sometimes when I discover some of the things my dogs have chewed. I guess I just forget about it and think in the long run I'd much rather have an annoyingly, blood pressure rising, stinky dog then a coat (or whatever precious item has been eaten).

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Since it is obvious that you do not have a clue about obedience training, your services should be for free. You cannot train even an adult dog for 8 hours a day. About the most that can be done at any one time is 10 - 20 minutes and that is with an adult dog and not a puppy. The attention span on this baby is extremely short and training session should be no more than 10 minutes and twice a day. Additionally, there isn't going to be much learned if you will only be training for 5 days. Obedience training is cumulative and is done over a much longer period of at least several weeks to several months.

What you can charge is determined by your experience, reputation, and accomplishments and in a case like this, should also include guaranteed expectations. Just working with dogs over several years, is not the experience that is necessary to be a dog trainer. There are too many people who are putting that title to their name and fleecing the public. Don't be one of them.

Black Lab. By the age of two, he ate and passed: car keys, socks, underwear, washcloth, sponges, bottle caps, and a shoe horn.He has destroyed cell phones, tv remotes, garage door openers, lamps, clocks, fridge door handle, hoses, metal crutches, a lawn mower, and a 80 year old guitar signed by my great aunt and gene autrey. To date (4 years) we are still puppy proof, he can reach or open anything. If given the chance he will steal wrapped chocolate candy, remove it from the wrapper and eat it, bread, and apples. He's obviously gotten into some weird stuff. But his most irritating non food forray would have to be chewing up all of the the toilet seats (he's never been locked in a bathroom) for no apparent reason. Imagine sitting on that first thing in the morning. The big food one would be two choice t-bone steaks from the neighbor's grill. Guess he won't put the grill against the back fence again.

Our fix was putting the dog to work. He now does dock diving, detection work and runs 8 miles a day. Our food bill effectively doubled but its been worth it.

The dog I have right now hasn't really destroyed anything, but we got him when he was around 2 so he knew better. The only thing he has ever done is ripped is the sofa by scratching it before he lays down. He has also knocked off the lid to the garbage can to eat scraps of food. The food got all over the floor and the lid to the garbage can is now broken. I don't punish him unless I know I can connect the punishment to the thing he did wrong. If you yell at them hours afterwards they won't learn anything.

I had a yellow lab named Sandy, she was my first dog. Of course, I knew nothing about labs needing to be walked and played with daily, so she destroyed my family's home. One day, I walked in and found the sofa TORN TO BITS. She also took the chance to crap in the house. She had the runs and got in all over the living room, even the walls. No joke, she literally shoved her butt up against the wall and went.

A year after my dad took Sandy to a dog pound where another family was ready to adopt her already, we got a new dog. It was a beagle pup named Cassie. I think we got her from a backyard breed (I knew NOTHING about dogs and neither did my family). She wasn't walked often so she dug holes in the yard to get out all of her energy. The yard was full of craters. She also ripped up the arm rest of our basement sofa so badly we could never fix it. She ripped the dry wall off the bathroom wall. Most of the wall was completely gone, she even jumped up and bit the wall to make sure it was all destroyed. One day, she dug a hole under the fence and ran away. I hope she found better owners than we were.

I'm so glad I'm a better pet owner now.

Maybe you can sew up your jacket or find someone who can? The idea about using the hood is great! I hate when you think you can trust a dog and they do that! It just goes to show you can never put complete trust in an animal, they can always go and do something completely out of character.

ADD: I almost forgot a cute story about a dog my grandfather used to own. I was about four and the stupid dog ripped up my favorite stuffed animal, the one I took everywhere. I took my play-broom (a fake, little broom I used when playing house) and chased him all over the house. I think that was the first time I felt the "I want to kill you!" feeling. I feel bad about it now, I think I hit the dog a few times before my mom stepped in. :(

Aw, bummer. I hate when dogs do something so out of character like that! You trust them, so you don't think you need to be careful, and then they do something random like that! Too bad it was something that meant so much to you this time! :(

Well, I don't think they own a toy that is in fewer than 5 pieces (except for Gracie's cherished Duckie, which is still whole, if a little dirty, even after 3 years). The first thing they do after getting a new toy is rip out the insides and proceed to take any extremities off. Other than that though, I've been really lucky with them. They were never chewers. They didn't even go through a destructive phase as pups. I honestly can't think of anything they've damaged at all. With how much they love destroying the things they are allowed to destroy, like their toys, it's a miracle they never realized that it might be just as fun to destroy MY things! Hopefully they never do!

It was a VERY different story with the dog I had before them, the one I grew up with! Lots of brand new shoes (of course, she completely ignored the old dirty shoes!), phone cords, sandbox/yard toys, an entire laundry basket torn into 50 pieces and spread all over the backyard, kitchen items like measuring cups and plastic bowls, sliding door screens, stair banisters...you name it, she probably damaged or destroyed it during her puppyhood. You'd think at least of of us would have realized, "Hey, we need to supervise this girl more carefully!" but NOPE. Our first dog, lots of mistakes made! She died about 5 years ago at 13, but I actually still have a few items with teeth marks in them from when she was a pup. We were mad at the time, but now those things are special things to remember her by. I smile every time I use those measuring cups with the chewed up handles. Even if you can't fix your jacket, keep it! Someday, when your dogs are gone, that jacket will mean more to you WITH the dog damaged pocket than it ever did without it!

My first introduction to crates was when I first started showing my hounds, out in Canada. As they didn't have benched shows (I think there may have been one, in Toronto actually), everybody used crates to keep their dogs happy and safe at the shows. I had several hounds and they took to their crates immediately, so I used them as their beds, and they slept in them at night. The natural progression was to use them for puppies. And this is where they come into their own. Cover the top and three sides, and it becomes a little den. Dogs love a den so it's absolutely no problem for them to use them as their base. Their bedding goes in there, along with their toys etc. And voila, a safe place. You can't watch a puppy 24/7 and puppies do get into trouble - electric wires, chewing what they shouldn't, you name it. And they do occasionally need a time-out place. And when it comes to housetraining, I've found them invaluable. A crate should never ever be used as a form of punishment. You start by having the crate in the livingroom, or kitchen etc., and leave it with the door open. Ten to one pup will be found curled up fast asleep in their space. Unfortunately some people look on them as a cage. This isn't the case by any means. And they are also a safe way to transport dogs in the back of a car. My adults lie on the floor (actually up on the sofa lol), but they also sleep in their crates by night. For me, a crate is essential equipment for having a dog - next to a collar and lead!!

My dogs really aren't in to destroying things, my breed isn't an aggressive chewer.

My male, Taz did ruin a few things though. As a puppy he chewed up some Christmas lights one time, my fault though for plugging them into the floor outlet & then not watching his every move, after being corrected he never chewed another thing that wasn't his.

He also likes to dig in beds & on furniture, so he is not allowed to get on the furniture when we are not home, so yes he gets crated when we leave & he cannot go with us. He digs instinctively, not because he is bored. My other 3 dig in their beds sometimes before they lie down, but that is okay, it's Taz who seems to never stop digging until a hole is made...doesn't matter if it's the ground or your sofa...lol

I assume he is trying to "den"

Hmmm, that sucks. Don't think there's a way to fix that short of getting a new pocket altogether. =/

My boxer has chewed up several pairs of my shoes in her puppy days, almost the entire carpet padding underneath the area rug in the den (she went after a different corner of the rug every day for about a week), several ball point pens, a phone charger, her dog bed, and a couple of books, including my BF's bible that was a gift from his brothers when he was confirmed (he's Catholic) that had his name inscribed on it and everything... oh yea and that one happened ON CHRISTMAS DAY. She's got the best timing huh? ;)

This is her with the dog bed (or what was left of it):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoebethphoto/36020136...

Geez, I hadn't realized how bad she was until writing it all out just now!

I have a great dane pup and she is really good in the house but outside she has destroyed a few things. I have one of those auto sheds (frame with tarp like covering), well, it is now a frame and the covering is in a number of pieces. She has also chewed a wide assortment of things that were in the shed. To fix your jacket, get some of that iron on seam stuff (speed sew?) and attach a patch. You can try to match the fabric or go with something different. Try to stick to the same weight of fabric as the jacket.

I had a lab that started eating the house once. As in gnawing on the siding.

But for my current dogs Max and Bindi. Max hasn't touched anything he shouldn't, it actually takes quite a bit of convincing for him to play with a toy at all. Although he does seem to be regressing back to puppy hood as of late. Yesterday he grabbed a small trash can (empty) off my deck. He proceeded to run around the yard looking like a bucket head. It was a ploy for attention, and he's getting much more creative in his ways of getting us laugh at him. He lives for a laugh and pat, bonus if you got something yummy. LOL

Bindi, she has taste for stuffed things, and plastic. She has killed a couple kids toys, including a $100 Dora knows your name doll. We are still baffled as to how she got it though. After that and a long period of only killing her stuff she chewed up a multi-meter. This came a day after her spay and I guess she was restless. Took some CSIing on my part to figure out what the hell all the bits and pieces in my bed were. I promptly disposed of the evidence and ordered a new one. To do this day we haven't been found out. Maybe when Bindi has passed on, I'll look back and tell my SO the story of the multi-meter.

I am happy to report that Bindi has been chew free for a couple years now. Other than things given to them for destruction of course. :)