So we have had zoey for a month now. She is 10 weeks. She has been FANTASTIC until the beginning of this week. She suddenly has felt the need to DESTROY EVERYTHING in her path when we aren't around. We have her baby gated in the kitchen when we are gone and there is a bathroom attached that we leave open for her because its cooler. The first night she had knocked over the bathroom garbage can, shredded everything in it. Somehow managed to pull my hair straightener off the counter. The wire wasnt low enough for her to reach. She then amazingly broke into the boarded off area we have for the cat box. I came home to shredded garbage all over the bathroom and kitchen along with cat poo smeared all over my floors. It covered her, the toys, was smashed into the dog bed. It was horrible. I disiplined her and she knew she was in trouble.
Second night i thought i would be clever and not let her have access to the bathroom. That didn't stop her path of destruction. she somehow managed to pull the dog food bag down, shred it, and between her and max they ate half the bag!!!
Third night there is nothing I think she can get a hold of. I was wrong once again....She this time knocked over the garbage can in the kitchen (which should be far to large for a puppy of her size to do any damage to). She ripped the lid off of it, pulled out every little bit of garbage (no food in it) and shredded EVERYTHING!
I have continually displined her and she even knows that she is in trouble when I get home because she sulks in a corner instead of running to me excitedly when i get home. Nothing has changed in the past week or so in our home. I have made her behave since day one and she knows i am the boss. They aren't getting bored because they are spoiled rotten and have tons of toys and a bunch of variety in them. Plus they have each other to play with.
I don't know whats happening or how to go about fixing it. Or if I am doing something wrong. My boyfriend who had max(our 3yo pem) before I was in the picture said that its just her testing her boundaries most puppies (especially corgis) do it. She is trying to decide who is more dominant; her or me. He said that if I keep disiplining her and trying to avoid giving her things to destroy she will realize soon I'm the dominant one.
I hope that is true but I wanted to hear everyone elses opinion. Have you gone through this? have you found something that worked for your dog? please help! I hate being mad at my baby girl.
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Yes this makes sense. If you discipline her after the act, she's already forgotten what it's about, she doesn't connect it with her behavior. She will connect her negative feelings from the discipline with you, not with her behavior.
Negative reinforcement usually doesn't work with humans, either, for the same reason.
You might talk to Wendy; her Ricky-Rafa earned a PhD in mischief:
http://www.mycorgi.com/profile/wsgf822
I don't know how it happened, but ours somehow learned what's off-limits and what's theirs. Give her plenty of toys, boxes, paper tubes, balls, and praise her while she's destroying those.
Also, make sure home is puppy-proofed, with special attention to dangerous stuff (garbage, live power cords, venetian blind strings, poisons, plastic bags).
I agree with Bev. Maybe get an exercise pen and a crate? Leave toys that she can have in there (Kongs or other chewy things that are safe). Mine still like to get holkd of a kleenex or something. She's a babe...she also will be teething soon and will want to chew even more.
Exercise before you leave and tire her out. Good luck.
Oh my gosh, she's just a baby! She is NOT trying to dominate you. She's just playing. She has no idea what's ok to play with and what's not, and she has way too much freedom. Everything she destroys is because you let her reach it, not because she's a bad puppy! If a puppy that young eats something, I think to myself "Whoops, I wasn't paying attention" not "What a bad puppy."
DON'T discipline her when you get home. She cowers because she knows you are mad, not because she knows she did something wrong. Cowering is appeasement, and she's just trying to appease you so you stop the scolding; she's not fessing up to being destructive.
Get an exercise pen, attach it to her crate, and put it in the middle of the room where she can't reach anything; not drywall, not wood trim, not edges of flooring. Give her some puppy-safe toys and some water in there. This will be her home each and every time you are not paying 100% attention to the puppy until she is at least a year old.
You have a perfectly normal puppy. :-) You have been given bad advice about dominance. If a two-year-old child breaks something, is it because they think they want to be the mommy? No, of course not.
Remember she's a baby. Shredding garbage is what puppies do. Knocking things down and chewing them is what puppies do. Every time she pees on something or destroys something that she should not, take a deep breath and remember the fault is with the owners for not confining safely, NOT with the puppy for being a puppy. If you are standing right there and catch her in the act, you can gently say "Ah-ah" once and replace the improper object with a toy, and then play with her vigorously to reward her. If she ruins something and you don't actually see her doing it, just ignore her and clean it up.
Puppies can be an armful, that's for sure. But don't let yourself get frustrated with her (easy for me to say NOW that mine are all grown...). Everyone's posted good advice. When mine were babies and I'd get home to find something messed up or an accident or whatever, since I wasn't there to see it happening, I just cleaned it up and paid no mind to the pooch. The only time I'd discipline them is when I actually saw the 'crime' take place. A crate and an x-pen kinda thing (like others have mentioned) for your little sweetie until you can leave her alone with confidence will be a huge help and a load of your mind.
Oh...and the kitty litter! Woooooo tootsie rolls!!!!! The treasures in kitty litter are a real treat for pooches. I had to move my (well, the cat's) litter box to another area for a while.
Good luck, hon. Hang in there, this too shall pass.
I had the same problem with Cooper around 5-6 m/o, but it only lasted for about a month and then miraculously went away. He shredded all of my magazines and a few books I had on the table, ripped up the toilet paper on the roll, chewed part of the wall/molding and tore up my carpet (padding and all), even though I left him plenty of other things to play with. He always did this when I was at work, so it was difficult to discipline him. I found that walking him more frequently and for longer amounts of time helped a little bit. I also leave him a treat sealed inside one of those gladware containers. It keeps him really busy trying to get it out, but he's gotten them out before so I know it's not so impossible that he'll give up and get bored.
Good luck!
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