10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADVICE?

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

OH Lola ! haha...Isis does this too..not all the time just every so often..i dont have an answer either ..i cant fig it out...im sure someone if not a alot of people will chime in for advice...

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

I don't know except maybe you could cover your couch with something until this phase passes.  Sophie will paw and dig at the carpet between the wall and the floor like she has just discovered some buried treasure.  She hasn't ruined anything yet, but if I let her keep going she'd probably dig her way to the basement.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

I don't know the answer here for sure, but basically everyone I know who's had a boxer, the dog at one time in it's life ate a couch.  I really think the answer is you can't leave them unsupervised in a room with a couch (or any other furniture that you value).

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

i wonder if its comfort? now that i think about it..Isis only does it to the couch,my bed and her bed....just making it comfortable? i dont know im the resident blonde here hahahaha

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

The way the couch eating started with Kiah is one of her toys got pushed under it, so she tried to dig it out and when she couldn't get it she started eating the couch to get to it (this all happened when I was in the shower one morning).  It must have been so much fun, I now have three other places where she has pulled the stuffing out on the couch.  So I am on the lookout for a cheaper cover for the couch if any one knows a good place to buy them let me know.  I haven't seen any I like so far. :lol:

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

My dog Batista is going on 13 mo. and what we did was anytime he got into something he was not suppose to be in.  We would grab him my his collar take him up to it.  Tell him bad dog! We would then put him in his cage for a hour or two.  Then when we would let him out we would give him one of his toys to play with; to let him know would he could chew on and not to chew on.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Wish I could help in some way Alicia and Ky....I'm reading this thinking...oh no Sadie doesn't chew or scratch at furniture NOW, I guess I was sort of thinking she would always be like that... :lol:  :roll:  

Alexa
AKA Naive first time dog owner  :lol:

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Duke digs at our couch to but the cusions come off so he just ends up pushing the cusions to the floor and gets bored.  Sorry  i can't help.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Alicia..dont make her crate a punishment...thats NOT a good idea...Lola is a very good girl and this isnt out of the ordinary...

of course you want to stop it but maybe just keeping an eye on her?

we need Liz for this one..shell be here soon..

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Thanks for the advice Liz - I'm going to write this one down.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Thanks for the links Liz, I will check them out.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

That apple bitter spray does not work at all.  We used it for the rabbit when he was chewing and he loved it.  The dog loves it too.  My fiance put a drop of it on her tongue and she hated it, but she doesn't chew on the furniture often enough for it to be effective   .  We put a cover blanket on our couch and only allow Bruce to sit on that one section, and he's good about it.  Every once in awhile he'll dig, and we just give him a chew toy and tell him to knock it off.  Maybe try getting him his own dog bed, i think they come in shapes that resemble couches.  I wouldn't try the crate punishment route, it just makes it more difficult to get them to behave and be quiet when they need to be in it.  Good luck!

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

[quote="lillyzmomma\";p=\"46966":5vsgye09] Get her into a training class too.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Ky_IsisnOnyxsMama\";p=\"46914 said:

i wonder if its comfort? now that i think about it..Isis only does it to the couch,my bed and her bed....just making it comfortable? i dont know im the resident blonde here hahahaha

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Nope, I think you're right on that to a point.  I did ask the trainer about this once because she would do it on our bed or her bed and they said she's nesting, making her spot comfy!  

I think what she's doing to the couch is different....this is aggressively digging and biting.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

kiahsmom\";p=\"46920 said:

The way the couch eating started with Kiah is one of her toys got pushed under it, so she tried to dig it out and when she couldn't get it she started eating the couch to get to it (this all happened when I was in the shower one morning).

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I never thought of that.  For some reason she likes to push her balls under the couch and chair.  She can never get them out, so maybe she thinks she can dig her way to the bottom!  Also, anytime she's had a toy on the couch and started to push it into the cushions I've stopped her, and put her toy on the floor to let her know that's where she plays with it.......but maybe didn't stop her soon enough!?  

Good thinking!!  You may be on to something here

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

[quote="Sadiesmomma\";p=\"46939":kfubd4ql]Wish I could help in some way Alicia and Ky....I'm reading this thinking...oh no Sadie doesn't chew or scratch at furniture NOW, I guess I was sort of thinking she would always be like that... :lol:

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

[quote="EliasVoorhees\";p=\"47073":b890jg96]That apple bitter spray does not work at all.

Re: 10 mth old now scratching & chewing furniture?! ADV

Thought I'd throw in that we're now trying to re-train her that she can only come up when invited.  Any tips on that!?!  This is like a full time job