Chewing drywall and Trim

[Flexi's Mom]

Our boxer Flexi if a 1 year old now and we crate trained her for the first 10 months that we had her. We recently bought a new house and we had a big enough laundry room where we could keep her during the day when we are at work and we blocked the laundry room off with a baby gate. For the first couple months in the laundry room she was fine and never chewed anything except for her toys. Now, we are on month 3 and she has decided to start chewing the wood trim in the there along with a little bit of the drywall. I'm at a loss on what to do because we always leave a million toys in there with her during the day and she is only in there for a normal work day (8 hrs). I really don't want to go back to the crate because I think she should be able to run around and play while we are gone rather then just lay there and sleep all day, I don't think that is fair to her! Does anyone have any suggestions???

 

[Jan]

I'm at a loss on what to do because we always leave a million toys in there with her during the day and she is only in there for a normal work day (8 hrs).

That your first mistake. Take away all the toys except for maybe a couple and a Kong which you can stuff with yummy stuff. The same ole toys soon get boring. I would switch them around every couple of days.

Personally, I would put her back in the crate as she is really too young to be trusted as you have found out. Have someone come in and walk her during the day.

She probably sleeps most of the day anyway. At least when she's not chewing up the dry wall. :(

Good luck!

 

[Hoboe24]

I had the same issue with Paulie around the same age...the final straw was when he ate his way into the couch. A few months back in his crate and he was ready to be left on his own with free run of the house. They do it from boredom but for their own safety when we weren't home with him he was in his crate.