stopping a guest puppy from chewing

[TrogL]

A friend of mine is puppy-sitting and it's chewing everything in sight including a $570 pair of prescription sunglasses. It's a BIG puppy.

It's not crate trained and she's not about to buy a crate for two more weeks of sitting. I offered an enclosure but the dog will jump right over it. It's already jumped a baby gate.

All I could come up with is finding something more attractive than slippers and sunglasses, perhaps elk antlers if she can find them this time of year.

[ret5hd]

1. Same thing I use on rambunctious children: duct tape.

(i kid, i kid)

[LiberalEsto]

2. Call an animal shelter and ask if they have a loaner crate she can borrow

Even if they don't, they might know of one.

[woodsprite]

3. Yaks milk treats are very good for strong chewers.

We give big slices of dehydrated sweet potato to our fur baby. She goes crazy over them. We go through 3-4 sweet potatoes a week. We have a dehydrator, so we make our own by putting them on when we come home from work or after dinner, and by the morning we have a whole fresh container of treats for her.

[TorchTheWitch]

4. Buy a crate and charge it to the owners

I'm sure they would be happier that they only got charged for the crate rather than charged for all the stuff their puppy destroyed. A puppy or dog that chews on things it shouldn't either needs to be crated or gated into one room like the kitchen where there's nothing to chew up when they can't be watched constantly.

They also need to "puppy-proof" the house taking away those things lying around that you don't want the puppy to get into or chew up. If it chews on pretty much anything though, it has to be physically controlled or in the next two weeks they may start having all kinds of stuff destroyed like the sofa, the door jambs, electrical cords, shoes, furniture legs, etc. A large breed puppy can do a HELL of a lot of expensive damage.

Since the puppy hasn't yet been trained not to chew up everything it wants to giving it something doggie approved to chew on isn't going to keep them from chewing up whatever else they want. This is a training issue - puppy has not yet learned that he can't chew up whatever he wants to.

The puppy wouldn't need to be locked up at all times though. If your friend just is diligent about making sure that when they are home and not busy going about the house to just make sure that what ever room they are in the puppy is in the room with them and can't leave that room so they can keep an eye on what it's doing.

The dog I have now is a big chewer. Though he's 18 months old I still have to crate him when I leave the house or he might chew up who knows what. He can be trusted now not to chew things he's not allowed to as long as I'm somewhere in the house, but not when I leave the house... if I leave he thinks he can get away with chewing things he's not allowed to because he knows I'm not there to catch him and scold him. Eventually he'll grow out of the desire to chew up everything but it might be awhile before he can be trusted to be alone in the house.

[TrogL]

5. She's going to lock him in the bathroom with everything removed

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I hope that works, but the dog had better have things it can chew in there.

If not, the door may be destroyed. There are chew toys that you can put a treat in and the dog has to work at it to get to the treat. It keeps them busy and stops the boredom, and boredom is one of the problems that causes excessive chewing. Also make sure that the dog is getting a lot of exercise.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. That was my thought, too. The dog will chew through the door.

[TorchTheWitch]

8. I'm seeing the bathroom door being destroyed

and the towels and toilet paper mangled and porcelain scratched as well as puppy howling his brains out in there. If she keeps him in the bathroom all the time he MUST have good ventilation in there. I think it's much better to crate them so they don't feel trapped and alone and so she'll know if it needs to go to the bathroom. The puppy wouldn't have to be crated all the time... she just has to have the puppy with her in the house where ever she is so she can pay attention to what it's doing. This is also going to be a big part of his training and may help in a day or two to learn that when the human is close by they can't chew on whatever they want or they'll be scolded and only doing their chewing when they're out of sight of the human. So after a couple of days as long as she keeps the puppy with her in whatever room she's in it probably won't chew on her things after a few times catching them in the act and scolding them.

I'm rather astounded that the owners knew this dog was a chewer and provided nothing to control it nor even told your friend what to expect. Since she's already had her expensive sunglasses destroyed she should at least have the owners replace them. Seems like they dumped with puppy on her with no consideration for her and her things and with nothing to control it. What do the owners do without a crate or a puppy gate? Just let the puppy destroy everything they own? I think these owners have been very inconsiderate and just figured whatever their dog did to her home was her problem.

[ginnyinWI]

9. I vote for borrowing or buying a crate.

A local animal shelter might have one, or even a rental agency--you know, the kind that rent out party tents and stuff. I would think, though, that for the price of a rental, you could buy an inexpensive one.

[Frosty1]

10. Go to the butcher shop and buy a large knuckle bone

it's a joint bone from a cow. I have raised 5 puppies who never chewed any thing of importance.. If you give them something they can chew on they will usually leave the other stuff alone. If they look like they are interested in chewing something else just redirect them to that bone. It works every time