Crack Doggy

[snookies0608]

So my dog Olivia is a 5-year-old Lab. She has never chewed on furniture and hasn't chewed a show for more than four years. We leave shoes all over the house and it's never been a problem.

Within the last six months she has started to go nuts for paper and similar things she can shred. She's ruined two Wii cases, several napkins, pieces of paper, etc. Today she picked out two large balls in our popurri that's in a trifle bowl on our coffee table. None of these things have been on the floor. They're on the coffee table, shelves, couch etc. She's not allowed on furniture and never even tries when we're home.

She has a few chews toys around the house, but does she need more? She also likes to chew and fling her bed pillow around by the mouth. I don't know why all of a sudden she's acting like a crazy dog and ruining our stuff?

Help?! We're taking her to our vet on Wednesday for an annual checkup, but I thought you girls might have an idea.

[snookies0608]

Oh and I forgot to add that I thought at first she was ripping apart napkins because of the smell of food on them. And she only ruined the Wii cases after we would play for hours on end at once, so I guess I naively thought she was just jealous? (I know that sounds silly, but maybe?)

But now things seem to be getting more and more random. She doesn't react to our scolding.

[madgey28]

Have you tried additional exercise?  Or a day of doggie day care or something?  I wonder if she just has excess energy and doesn't know how to burn it all off...

[M2girl]

ditto Madgey

[tray3]

We GIVE our dogs stuff to tear up -- their our personal shredders. Whenever we have cardboard they get it, or an old t-shirt or ripped pantyhoes -- that is their latest obsession, pantyhoes -- anyhow, we've never had a problem with them getting into things they shouldn't (other than when a puppy, puppy) -- but yeah, cabin fever this time of year is BAD - exercise, adn lots of play time!

[snookies0608]

I wonder why she's waited till she was 5 to be crazy. We're really not exercising her any less. We don't have as bad of weather here, so she's outside just as much. I guess we'll have to just step it up.

[futureMrsG]

Daisy goes through phases with this as well, and like Tray we just try to give her things that she can destroy, so she won't want to go hunt for them.  Her latest thing is digging in the trash can in the bathroom, which is just gross, and I will never understand why she likes to pull 100 used kleenex out and shred them in the living room.  That has been a hard one to break, but usually just stopping her and giving her one of her toys that she can destroy does the trick.  I know that she gets cabin fever too, she is FULL of energy, so we try to give her a little more exercise if we can when she starts getting restless.

[drewie]

Yep, I'd definitely try taking her to a doggy daycare once a week or every other week.  When you say she's not outside any less, are you actually walking her and taking her dog parks and such, or just letting her in the back yard?  Just letting them outside to run around isnt really exercising them, they definitely need interaction.  I know we are really bad about not walking them when it's cold out and just letting them out in the back yard to play instead.

[flor_del_sol]

ditto Drewie. Hanging around the backyard isn't exercising. Dog parks, doggie daycare, walks...

[tray3]

Also, I know she has toys, but are they "thinking" toys - we have some treat puzzles etc that we give the boys this time of year since we can't walk them as much - using their brains wear them out too!