naughty doggie!

[kactus]

bailey isnt home alone much. i leave him to my aunts on my way to work in the am,. he has a lie in at her house, brekkie and then she takesw him for a run (off leash) inthe park. he gets left back home aroung 1pm, we are home by 5.30. hes 11months old now. he has the hall, kitchen landing and acces to one (EMPTY) room upstairs from where he supervises the street. we have had this arrangement for 6 months now and up until a few weeks ago all was totally fine (thanks to a tight dog proofing rountine in the morning and a bolt on the lounge door!!!) anyways, about a month ago he nibbled a bit of the windowsill in 'his room' just a bit and a bit of bitter spray stopped it. then last week i come home and hes munched the doorframe to our bedroom. not deep but knawed up about 30 cms. again, sprayed it and he hasnt touched it since. today we come home and hes done the same thing to the post of the banister. (sp?) WHATS he doing? he normally just watches out the window or sleeps. he gets a frozen kong with a different variety each day which occupies him for about an hour. we rotate toys and hes just iin from a good run inthe park., im feelin like im doing something wrong maybe. why just start now? at the start the house was a wreck (we only moved here in may) now its getting sorted and hes starting to eat it!!!!!
any ideas?

 

[Scorpio]

Sounds like he's getting older and getting bored. maybe try just keeping him in the kitchen, keep changing toys and new things to chew on. You should talk to Kelseighgirl, her dog Justice has been nick named Termite for all the wood he has chewed I know its not funny but she has the same problem, maybe she has some ideas.

 

[Jan]

Your puppy is really too young to have have freedom. He needs to be in a crate.

Does you aunt actually jog with him or is he just free to run around? He is really too young to go jogging. As forced exercise at his age can cause permanent damage to his bones and joints.

 

[kactus]

lloooooooonnnggg

no she doesnt jog. hes free to run off leash. i wouold never force exercise on him. quite the oppoisiate. he has a 3-4 graded heart murmur and is meds so i actually make him have breaks every now and then when hes running free. hes had that freedom since the start and has had no issues for over 5 months. there is nothing dangerous at all for him to get into and he doesnt have the run of even half the house! the problem is our kitchen has an arch not a door and theres nothing to seperate the areas he has (jumped the tallest gate first attempt) the reason he has the empty room upstairs is that we found he barked when he couldnt watch the street, and that stopped as soon as we gave him the window. his toys are also rotated, and a few treats stashed in different place which he has always hunted out!
ive come home today and hes chewed the same part again. just a thought but i remember that my vet told me that dogs (or boxers specifically-cant remember which) go through 2 'teething phases. olne where they cut their adult teeth and then a second where they settle into their jaw and they become strong in the jaw. i have recently noticed that he has a lot more strength in his jaw (trying to keep his mouth open is really hard now) just a thought but maybe its connected? hes soooo good in the house and i dont feel that crating is the answer over 3 isolated incidents of chewing. i know that theres a lot of good points for crating but i dont thinks its going to be beneficial to start now. hes only there fro a few hours and he hated it when we tried it. in the uk they are really frowned upon and i guess ive maybe inherited a tiny bit of that too. id feel guilty about it. what i want to figure out is why hes doing it. hope you dont think im dismissive of your replys. im so not. i asked for the help and im grateful for any suggestions