New, Bad Behavior

[JackDawg]

Advice please: Jack is a 3 year old, fixed male. He is a latch key boxer unfortunately as my wife and I both work. I get home when I can at lunch to allow him to eliminate, however, this is not everyday. He gets a 40 minute walk in the mornings and at least an hour walk in the evenings, in addition to more play time later on at night, ie toys, treat filled kong, hide and go seek, the stairs, and rough-housing with his 'old man'. He has limited free roam of the house during the day (bedrooms closed off).

Here recently, he has started to chew his bedding. After the first, we replaced it as we thought that might have been his way of expressing "disinterest" in it. Second bed; chewed. We purchased one more bed late last week and we come home today to another chewed bed. Brand new mind you.

As this behavior has just surfaced, does anyone have any idea as to why after three years he is now doing this? Thanks a lot.

 

[Sansal]

My guess would be that he is bored and has too much pent up energy. How many hours total are you and your wife gone during the day? Is there a way he could go to doggy daycare a couple of days a week? Or maybe you could hire a dog walker for the days that you are not able to come home for lunch.

 

[johann]

Does he have anything that he is allowed to chew on? Johann will chew inappropriate things if he's bored and doesn't have a kong or bone to gnaw on. He loves raw bones though...and those keep him quiet for a long time.

Doggie daycare or a dog walker would also be a good idea (if possible). It sounds like he's under-exercised (we joke that Johann could walk 10 miles on a leash and still have energy) and bored.

 

[ehayes21]

I agree with the others, it sounds like a bored boxer to me. Your best defense is to tire him out before he goes into his crate for the day...Yes, that means getting up earlier. Boxers are very active dogs and you need to provide them with a good amount of stimulation if they are to be left alone. To put this into perspective, both of my boxers get an hour of off leash time in the morning, then a little training, and then they get let out by the dog walker for another 45 minutes everyday. So my suggestion to you is that you may need to adjust your schedule.

 

[TwoDogs]

As this behavior has just surfaced, does anyone have any idea as to why after three years he is now doing this? Thanks a lot.

Are you snowed in? My guys always get destructive when the weather cuts down on their time outdoors. We had bad ice a couple of weeks ago which made running in the yard almost impossible without injury. They were starting to get cabin fever and I thought I was going to strangle them. My female kept bringing me all her toys and even some household objects in hopes that I would play a game of fetch in the house with her. My male chewed the wheels off one of my son's toys--very atypical behavior for him.