Help Help Help

Ah, this dog may like eating scat. If you have a cat, your dog might also be dipping into the litter box, or if you have a diaper genie these dogs can grab a, er, snack from in there, too.

Okay, job one: find a secure place for your dirty laundry, somewhere the dog can't get to or something the dog can't open.

1) If you have your washer and dryer in the basement, collect the dirty duds and throw them down the stairs and shut the door.
2) Or put the basket up high where the dog can't get to it.
3) Or get a hamper with a lid that the dog cannot open.
4) Or toss the dirty duds straight into the washer if you don't have them in a basement or laundry room or some other place where you can close a door.

Personally, I vote for #1, with #4 as a second choice if #1 can't be done. I suspect #3 would result in a lot of jumping and work by the dog to get at the (to her) tasty treats and #4 might or might not be possible, plus I personally hate buying equipment if it's not necessary.

Job two: exercise. Dogs do all sorts of things because they're bored. They can't crack open a book, do a crossword puzzle or work the remote, so they tend to chew, bark or whine, or run around. Or dig. Yours is a chewer, and her choice of chewies is something we find very unpleasant. So exercise -- this means at least two good walks per day, one before you go to work and the other at night before going to bed or just after or before dinner if that's not feasible -- will help to diminish her boredom. Give her other foci, and it will help.

Job three: give her other things to chew. Of course you do not want to reward bad behavior, and you certainly do not want to provide a substitute that is inappropriate or something the dog doesn't want. Hence you may need to experiment a bit. If your dog does something great, like learns a new trick or whatever (this also helps with the boredom, BTW), give her a rawhide chew. Most dogs love 'em. If she doesn't, there are flavored ones, there are pig ears, that sort of thing. Some chews even help with teeth cleaning. Substitute a good chew for a bad one.

Job four: training. This means yelling "NO!" (never, ever hit the dog) when you catch her in the act of doing something bad. That means in the act and not a minute afterwards or beforehand. This is a dog and she doesn't get it if the "NO!" doesn't come directly attached to the bad behavior. Training also means other training, such as sit, heel, stay, down, etc. because this kind of training engages you with your dog, and that might help with this behavior. Your dog likes your smell and wants to be near it. So provide that in a pleasant manner that is acceptable to you, and your dog won't be quite so driven to what we would perceive as desperate measures. Training also means socialization, as in training classes, the dog park, agility if that works out, that sort of thing, this is more fun stuff for your dog (and for you, BTW), and, in addition to that, tired dogs are happy dogs and they are far less to engage in destructive behaviors.

Job five: dominance. Training also means you and your husband asserting your dominance. This is not done through aggression, rather, it is done through being assertive and knowing what you want and what you are doing. Dogs are pack animals that normally live in a highly structured society. Everyone knows their place. In your home, your dog is challenging your husband's place. Dominance is what dog trainer Cesar Milan refers to as "calm, assertive energy". You need to work with the dog in order to let her know that you and your husband are Alpha and Beta, in either order, and she, the dog, is Gamma. And if you have a child, then the child is Gamma and the dog becomes Delta. The dog stays at the bottom of the pack, your pack, your family. Right now, your dog isn't sure of who fits in where and so is trying to exploit the opportunity to move up in the ranks. You may have seen other behaviors and not associated them with this, such as the dog sleeping on a pillow or coming onto the bed or furniture without invitation, or food or toy aggression or the like. Cesar does it with a kind of "chih" sound, it's very sharp and dogs seem to get that it means, "cool it, I'm in charge". It's hard to describe without hearing it.

Good luck and I hope these suggestions are of help to you.

Is she spayed yet?

no she is not spayed yet she is a year old and we don't have any cats. I am going to start her on some vitamins to see if she's lacking something.

I think spaying might help, and by one year old, she should be anyway. (Note, I'm far from an expert, just an idea.)

Have you talked to a vet about this?

Spayed or not, it's something female dogs like to do. Dunno why, but I can guess.

One of the first emails I got on my home computer, about 7 years ago, was from a friend whose 5 year old female dog had just eaten the crotch out of a pair of $400 pants.

<lotsa google hits if you phrase it just right, otherwise lotsa odd porn>

Apparently this book can help click



The only sure-fire solutions are keeping things well out of reach - like behind a door.

ehBeth has a friend with $400 pants ? That's a lotta pants.

should be like this, see:

one pair of pant.
two pair of pants.