[nagdu] Destructo dog when not supervised

[Tami Jarvis]

Tracy,

Most likely, the young idiot will grow out of it. Eventually... Well, by 
two or three. Meanwhile, it sounds like you'll have to keep working with 
him and trying to keep stuff out of his reach. Although, as I am 
reminded daily, puppy proofing simply means the puppy will have to work 
harder and be more creative to get stuff while the human isn't watching 
because the house is puppy proofed... /lol/ Loki's in a lull when it 
comes to destruction, but he sure likes to rearrange things and carry 
things from room to room. So then I have him carry the thing back and 
make a big deal because it's "put away! Yay!" He's ten months tomorrow, 
so I guess we will be playing such silly games for awhile. I've decided 
it would be great if he would bring me the contraband upon request, so 
we're working on that. I mean, he's gonna get the contraband and carry 
it around anyway, so what the heck? /lol/ The important thing is that 
he's not ripping it up and swallowing it. Whew!

Would it be practical (even a little) for you to use a hands free leash 
to keep Krokus with you while you're gardening or anything like that? 
Are you still trying to teach him to use his natural tendencies to fetch 
and carry? Hm... I tried teaching Mitzi to find weeds for me in our old 
yard, where the part we worked on wasn't fenced, so there she was on a 
hands-free leash. It was entertaining, but not terribly efficient, since 
I didn't do a very good job of teaching her to be useful. Oh, well. She 
did help me stay oriented when I was too busy with the hunt for the wily 
weed to keep track myself.

I feel like you do about the crate... It's useful, but what is the dog 
learning? Still, if that's what you need to do, it's what you need to 
do. Meanwhile, keeping up with whatever training type things you do to 
divert him that are working will pay off in the end. Or he'll just grow 
out of it. /smile/

Good luck!

Tami


On 02/23/2015 11:03 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu wrote:
> When Krokus is not supervised, he frequently looks for something to chew
> up, which is almost never his toy.  I'm not sure if it's a reaction to
> being alone, or just taking an opportunity when it is presented, and I'm
> not sure it matters.  All I know is I'm nervous about leaving him alone,
> so I make him follow me around the house, or get my husband to watch him,
> or put him in his crate.
> Spring has to come sometime, and, when it does, I want to be outside
> working in my garden.  I want to teach Krokus to be good even when I'm not
> around, if such a thing is possible.  I'm not too keen on him spending
> most of the summer in his crate.  And what does he learn sitting in there,
> anyway?
> But I don't know what to do, or if I just have to wait for the young idiot
> to grow up a bit.  He's getting better, but he's still not trustworthy.
> This is not really what I signed up for, but it's what I've got, and he
> has many fine qualities.
> Tracy
>
>
>
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