digging up carpet
I have a dilemma,
toki (8 month old neutered with his own room) likes to dig up the carpet. I take him out walking 40 mins-2hours, 4-5 times a week, and let him run around the house and yard for 2 sessions of 2 hours on the days I can't take him walking. But still he will occasionally dig up the carpet, probably 1-2 times a week. And I NEVER catch him in the act, it is only in his room when he is alone that he does it. He has tons of soft toys, hard toys, balls, kongs, rawhides, and the busy cube (not all out at once, they get rotated) and an egg chair with a blanket and pillow
I was letting him have free run of his room because it is completely dog safe. However, now i'm thinking I should crate him during the time I am home/on errands and not able to hang out with him. But my work keeps me away for 12 hours, so i guess I'll just let him loose in the room during that time...this at least decreases the chances of him getting into trouble, he is housebroken and was crate trained for a few months while I wasn't working
Now, check me, does my plan make sense or do you think crating him will just make him more likely to tear up his carpet when he is loose in his room while I'm at work?
The way I saw it was that instead of a wire cage being his crate I gave him a small room as his crate and it would "ideally" work the same, a place of his own....so I guess him tearing up the carpet is like a pup tearing up his bed while in the crate...but near carpet is harder to come by then new beds, although may add up to the same price
Is this just a teenager high energy phase and he'll stop tearing at the carpet eventually? when is eventually? I can't wait
toki (8 month old neutered with his own room) likes to dig up the carpet. I take him out walking 40 mins-2hours, 4-5 times a week, and let him run around the house and yard for 2 sessions of 2 hours on the days I can't take him walking. But still he will occasionally dig up the carpet, probably 1-2 times a week. And I NEVER catch him in the act, it is only in his room when he is alone that he does it. He has tons of soft toys, hard toys, balls, kongs, rawhides, and the busy cube (not all out at once, they get rotated) and an egg chair with a blanket and pillow
I was letting him have free run of his room because it is completely dog safe. However, now i'm thinking I should crate him during the time I am home/on errands and not able to hang out with him. But my work keeps me away for 12 hours, so i guess I'll just let him loose in the room during that time...this at least decreases the chances of him getting into trouble, he is housebroken and was crate trained for a few months while I wasn't working
Now, check me, does my plan make sense or do you think crating him will just make him more likely to tear up his carpet when he is loose in his room while I'm at work?
The way I saw it was that instead of a wire cage being his crate I gave him a small room as his crate and it would "ideally" work the same, a place of his own....so I guess him tearing up the carpet is like a pup tearing up his bed while in the crate...but near carpet is harder to come by then new beds, although may add up to the same price
Is this just a teenager high energy phase and he'll stop tearing at the carpet eventually? when is eventually? I can't wait
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Comments
He gets at least 2 miles in a day, except those days he just runs around the house, then he probably gets more, we like laser tag and frisbee
plus i heard you aren't suppose to overdo the activity, someone told me its the dog's age x 5 min, not like I listen to that
maybe its just one of those phases, like his chewing the wall phase, he got over that by the way, it just took a week and some bitter lime. i wish i could figure out a way to teach him to stop, he probably just doesn't realize its bad.
Once we get situated in a house, we too will dedicate a room just for the dogs (if not for them, than to at least keep most of their stuff in one place). We will reline the floor with a sheet of linoleum flooring, or something else non-absorbent, won't look too pretty but it's easy to clean and you can see everything they did on it.
How long, do you think, it takes him to start ripping up the carpet? Sometimes boredom can cause them to be destructive. Even after a long walk, playing at the dog park, and a game of 'catch and tug'; Tikaani will still get bored of being in the crate within an hour, making anything in his reach fair game to becoming confetti.
the house came with carpet and luckily there hasn't been any messes but I really wanted some sort of linoleum or wood cause it is easy to clean and the dog hair doesn't get suck everywhere.
But I don't know the first step in putting in linoleum and I don't really want to hire someone...do you happen to know how to do it or a quick fix without pulling up the carpet, not like that's hard since toki did most the work for me
I just put the carpet back down and nail it down each time...i just bought bigger nails
it doesn't happen that often once or twice a week, its tolerable
he is doing well with crating though, better than i thought, just a naughty pup
i'm trying to find a dog to petsit off of craigslist for a bit and see if he is more happy having a friend
I would watch out for larger nails. You would be surprised what dogs can dig out. I would just make sure he is 100% safe. Even the carpet tack board nails can hurt.
i wish I could borrow someone's dog for a week and see if he is happier, it always makes me sad when I see him chasing his tail makes me think he wants another furry friend
That being said, I think you can attack the issue from multiple fronts. Daycare as Lindsay suggested is a great idea. Aside from draining his energy, it will provide him mental stimulation that he doesn't normally get. Also, the linoleum idea is a great one. Romi posted instructions on how she made a playpen here.
I work at night, so daycare is out
but because I work at night I can walk him everyday...I just need to motivate myself to not go to sleep when I come home after being awake and on my feet all through the night
i'll keep you posted on how things go
thanks for all the good ideas
I am a firm believe in Better Behavior Through Exhaustion. :)