by greendawn 35 Replies latest jw friends
My bird, Rocco, loves to chew just about anything. This is what he did to the wood trim on a couch. The couch had a thick blanket covering it to protect against his chewing. It hasn't done much good. Also, I have several designated "bird shirts" and pants, as he likes to destroy anything I wear. Button removal is a favourite pastime for him, and he's been known to bite buttons in half. He even broke a metal button once.
W
A long time ago, I had a rabbit that got out of his cage when I was not at home. He chewed thru all the stereo and speaker wires! I have to keep an eye on my cats--they like to play with small items and I am afraid that they will swallow them. One of my kitties has a thing for tape! Rubberbands are another favorite! They are hidden, but the cats are smart and know where they are!
This is really a training issue. Actually a few training issues! To train a puppy or dog not to chew on things you have to keep lots of things around that dogs can chew on and LIKE to chew on. Then, if they get ahold of something they can't have, you trade them for one they are allowed to chew on. You can reinforce that by spraying items with bitter apple spray, tastes really nasty to dogs.
There was some other behavior described here that is definately separation anxiety. When you come home and make a big fuss over your dog and let them jump up on you and lick, etc (essentially crazy hyper), you make them worse. The most destruction is done in the first 20 minutes after you leave. The thing you have to do to keep this from happening is to make your return no big deal. This is really hard to do because you LIKE them licking, etc. But you have to turn your back on them and do not talk to them for about five minutes. In dog packs when the alpha does not like the behavior of the puppy or other dog they have the same way of dealing with it. They turn their back. Now the puppy or dog will attempt to follow you around to your face again, you really have to stay focused.
After I get home I walk around for a few minutes and put my coat away, sort the mail, get a drink of water, whatever it is, then after a few minutes have passed, I call them over and give them some attention. That way they get their love quotient, but it isn't reinforcing their hyper behavior around your coming and going.
Trust me this will save a lot of chewed sofa's, shoes, etc. The best thing of all for training in terms of separation anxiety, potty training, chewing, etc. is the crate. They LOVE their crate. You just can't use the crate as a punishement, always make it fun to go in the crate at first (bisquits help), they love going in, they think its their cave.
Ok, sorry this is so long, I feel like I'm lecturing here. I learned a lot of this the hard way and paid some good money for lessons too. Dogs are wonderful friends, no sense making it harder on you both!
Best of luck!
Sherry
Gretchen thanks for the very useful tips on avoiding pet damage. Those sprays are a good idea.
Finally Free is that your pet bird in your avatar. Whatever it is its beak is amazingly powerful to cause all that damage. It must be a big parrot.
Calico didn't know that rabbits like chewing wires, useful to know in case I get some in the future.
I have a sweetie girl boxer who's cuter than my dinger and she has never peed, pooped, tore anything up, or nuthin. But....I have acid stained floors with a high gloss sealer on them and her claws reak havoc like a bastard. I can't play in the house with her cuz she'll slide across the floors leaving her cute marks on the floor.
Me needs some wax and a high speed buffer.......or make her wear doggie shoes.
Gumby
Finally Free is that your pet bird in your avatar. Whatever it is its beak is amazingly powerful to cause all that damage. It must be a big parrot.
Yes, that's him in the avatar. It's a picture of him damaging my hearing. I haven't had a serious bite from him - yet - but once he lost his footing when he was walking around on me, and he grabbed my knuckle to maintain his balance. For a moment I thought he'd break my knuckle. I'd hate to see what he could do if he was angry. If he's on my shoulder (which is unwise on my part) I keep some food in my hand to distract him if he starts getting too interested in chewing on my facial features. I'm beginning to understand why many pictures of pirates with parrots usually showed the pirate with an eye patch.
W
My cat is a little shit!
She usually always sleeps in the front bedroom and generally (as cats do) have free reign of the house (the only room off limits is our bedroom); that being the case, she uses her cat scratching post really well and regularly too so she doesnt tend to scratch in the house....so we thought!
we went through a phase of not being able to find her anywhere in the house despite knowing that she was inside primarily because it was raining and the fatrat doesnt like rain. Normally we find her about the house mooching around and generally doing what cats do and we were wondering where she was going to; we searched wardrobes..cupboards and generally everywhere she could well be hiding but to no avail.
Anyway food time came and sure enough she would appear in the kitchen from upstairs; a few days went by and we were baffled; through some detective work we isolated it down to one room; it had to be the front bedroom where she was hiding and we hadnt a clue where though.
We waited till her dinner time feed and sure enough we were waiting for her to appear and would finally find out where she was hiding.
We have a spare bed in the front room and the base of the bed also has drawers in there for bedding etc; I was looking at the bed and a paw appears pulling back the fabric on the corner of the base and out comes the cat; she had scratched herself a hole (conveniently covered up when she was inside) and had been sleeping in the bedding drawer; we looked at the fabric that had been torn and she had ripped it to shreds but in such a way we didnt notice (not being on that level).
Bedding, Bed and Drawer ruined!
Again shes a little shit!
DB74
First of all, I'm not prejudiced against dogs. Dogs are fine creatures, in thier proper place, and I think having one is a great idea. ;-) I will say, however, that I've never lived in a dog house and I never intend to. Dog houses go outside with the rest of the animals. ;-)
Dog houses go outside with the rest of the animals. ;-)
I'd like to see you sleep outside my house right now in the 26 degree weather. Dogs feel too.
Gumby
I had a dog named Rocky who loved the cold. In fact, he would pant in 20 degree weather. I've seen him splash around in the running creek with ice on the ground. Dogs grow thicker fur when exposed to the outside, like all animals. Also, they're pretty durned low on the food chain. Fact of life.
