Frost - How to control a puppy (at home) when not in crate?
Update for Frost.
I am having a unique problem with Frost. ( I envy you all whose puppy seem to be so well behaved when loose at home)
I walk/jog for 40 minutes every morning and evening. He is in crate from 8am to 2-3PM when my sons come back from school and take care of him. After he relieves, he is loose in the home while we are there. Many times, chewing on the nylabones, little bit of playing, petting etc.
The problem that I am having is, he gets bored (I think) and then tries to chew furniture, dry wall or edges of carpet. Whenever we catch him doing that, we say NO, give him timeout etc.
Not many toys survive his chewing. I am running out of options as to how to control him when he is loose in the house. Many times we put little bit of peanut butter on the bone - that will do the trick for 15 minutes.
How do you handle 8 month old Shiba at home?
I am having a unique problem with Frost. ( I envy you all whose puppy seem to be so well behaved when loose at home)
I walk/jog for 40 minutes every morning and evening. He is in crate from 8am to 2-3PM when my sons come back from school and take care of him. After he relieves, he is loose in the home while we are there. Many times, chewing on the nylabones, little bit of playing, petting etc.
The problem that I am having is, he gets bored (I think) and then tries to chew furniture, dry wall or edges of carpet. Whenever we catch him doing that, we say NO, give him timeout etc.
Not many toys survive his chewing. I am running out of options as to how to control him when he is loose in the house. Many times we put little bit of peanut butter on the bone - that will do the trick for 15 minutes.
How do you handle 8 month old Shiba at home?
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Comments
Toby was doing this at like ... 4-5 months old.
If you can't supervise him 100% of the time or have issues with him chewing everything, you could always get a pen, or gate him into a puppy-proof room where everyone else is. We have two baby gates. One to block the stairs, and one to block the porch ( where the cat's food is ) the rest of the house is blocked off with closed doors.
But, even with all of our hard work, Toby still beavered his way through kitchen table legs and chairs.
I have been doing most of the tips.- rooms are always closed. I used to have a exercise pen. But one day he pushed it towards a wall and bored a hole in it. So we stopped putiing him there. May be I need to secure pen to a plywood base and put him there. (but then I dont want to restrict him while we are at home - he is already in crate for long duration.
I can get babygate to block the stairs - but the landing on the porch is his turf - many times he is sitting there. On one hand - I want him to be free at home on the other hand I want to be well bahved - Does this chewing stop after they grow like 1-2 year old?
Do you have a Premier Tug-n-jug? My Shiba mastered it, but when we first got it, it kept his busy for a very long time. He couldn't figure that thing out!
And Steph is right, you can never 100% supervise him all the time. We have four adults living in this house and we still can't keep one out of 8 eyes on him at all times
Don't worry, keeping him contained for a few months will be nothing compared to all the years he'll have running loose when he's MATURE
It has been suggested many times, but it truly is valuable advice: its easier to prevent a behavior then it is to modify it once its started.
Oh god yes. Don't use spray on your dog. I used to use bitter apple months ago, but it never worked. I happened to get it on my hands once ... aand my hand went into my mouth. Maaaan, that stuff tastes horrible! I never used it again.
It took us a great deal of time to find durable shiba chews. Kongs are great! We have Nylabones and marrow bones everywhere.
You have to watch them all the time as you know. The worse we have gotten from Niko is a hole licked in the hardwood-We thought she had a bone and some chewed leashes from leash training. Of course along with holes in the legs of pants, chewed towels and blankets and may many killed toys!
Frost is completely cool with his crate. Part of the training everyday is "he has to go to crate on command to get a treat". When I go for work, I do give him kong. I think I have gulity feeling to crate him while we are at home. But may be we will not let him loose for 6 hours at a stretch (from 3 to 10pm). May be we will crate him in between when we cant watch him reliably.
I agree prevention is better than cure. May be his molar teeth are coming out? That is why he may have started chewing aggresively. When he was a little puppy he went thro intense chewing phase and then it lessened a bit.
Yesterday I put my kids on job to spray bitter apple everywhere that we can think of. I also got him few kong pastes. I will look into premier tug and jug toy. Yesterday I also let him loose in backyard at 7Pm and played with him for few minutes, got him to zoomie around to spend some energy.
I think I need to get couple of babygates so that we can constrain him where we are.
I have hope that, he will calm down after he becomes adult and we can trust him.
I bought couple of congs and cong paste So that I can freeze the paste for a full day before giving to Frost in the evening. We are also putting him in the crate part of the evening when we cant keep an eye on him. The kong keeps him busy for sometime.
as a downside, I think he is getting used to having "food" all the time. If we dont give him something to chew on like "tasty - PB on nylabone" he gets cranky.
Honestly, how long a puppy can be out of crate at a stretch without break- he is 8 Months old. Earlier he used to stretch and snooze while we were around. Nowadays he almost never sleeps while we are around and is constantly looking for "something" to do.
I am really waiting for the day "when he will simply lay down and watch us". Is it possible?
Your question, I think, is how long can they be out of the crate? After a year old, mine are only crated if we are not home (gone shopping) and will be coming back with full hands, never more than 3-4 hours at a time.
If they are destructive after a year old, I don't crate them when I'm home, but I confine them to a room or two rooms with interactive toys until I can monitor and correct a destructive behavior.
Its illogical to think that you have to watch your shiba 24/7 but you do have to consider their safety and well being, your sanity, and the sanctity of your home 24/7. As long as he is getting proper exercise, interaction and stimulation daily, just train him to occupy himself with some toys in a confined area (not crate) when you are home but can't be right with him.
Right now he is in that 'teenager' phase where he is testing all his boundaries, this too shall pass, but make sure to let him understand that there will be down times and he has to be happy with toys and some treats in this time, while rewarding his patience and good behavior with a long walk or play session daily.