# How do I Get my dog to be less destructive?



## ILoveMyGS (Nov 25, 2014)

I adopted a GS about 3 months ago. She is 7 years old and the backstory from the rescue group was of neglect and no interaction. 

Admittedly I don't know much about dogs but I am willing to learn. 

At first we were crating her during the day while I was at work and the kids in school. She would be crated for roughly 6 hours. She hated being in the crate. She would try to "dig out" but all she succeeded in doing was bending the metal and exposing a sharp piece and scraping her nose up a bit. I didn't want to stress her out so I stopped crating her and started blocking off the rooms I didn't want her in. 

She alternates between being super calm and super destructive. She has eaten puzzles and books. She upends the trash, so now we hide the can when we leave. 

We try to give her enough exercise. We live out in the woods on a fairly large piece of land. When we wake up in the morning I let her out to use the bathroom and she decides when she is ready to come back inside. When my oldest gets home from school the first thing she does is take her outside for roughly 10 minutes. When my youngest gets home an hour later they take her out again for roughly 10 more minutes. I usually get home about 2 hours later. When I get home we give her dinner and then the kids take her back out to run around the property for about an hour. 

I take her out or let her out at least 2 more times before we all go to bed. 

Is there anything else I can do to keep her from being destructive?


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

It is going to be tougher at 7 years old. She has many bad habits. But is looks like your are on the right path. I would suggest you get up earlier and give your dog an hour work BEFORE going to work. Ten minutes at a time is great for potty but not much exercise. Also play games with your pooch. She is probably bored. 

By the way, nothing wrong with hiding the trash can. Even the best trained dog can be tempted to go after the trash, or dirty laundry, etc when no one is around.


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## scarfish (Apr 9, 2013)

welcome to the forum! i am by far the least knowledgeable person here but she needs training and discipline. training, training and more training. every member of the household needs to go over the training. i'm serious.


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## scarfish (Apr 9, 2013)

i never had a seven year old 'cause my first dog is only 2 but i doubt 7 is too late to train.


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## ILoveMyGS (Nov 25, 2014)

car2ner said:


> It is going to be tougher at 7 years old. She has many bad habits. But is looks like your are on the right path. I would suggest you get up earlier and give your dog an hour work BEFORE going to work. Ten minutes at a time is great for potty but not much exercise. Also play games with your pooch. She is probably bored.
> 
> By the way, nothing wrong with hiding the trash can. Even the best trained dog can be tempted to go after the trash, or dirty laundry, etc when no one is around.


I was thinking that it might be a boredom thing. I actually found this forum because I was trying to research this. She has toys and lots of them. I may have gone a little overboard when I decided to adopt. :blush: She pays them no mind what-so-ever. We have tried to play fetch or even just ball toss but she seems uninterested. She does like to run. 

What kinds of games should we play with her. 

And of course I will try the whole getting up earlier thing. 

A couple of websites mentioned separation anxiety. I would think that I haven't had her long enough for it to be something like that but she is perfectly fine and docile when I am home. She kind of just lays on the couch next to me if we aren't outside. 

Thank you for your replies. 

And thank you for your welcome scarfish.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Our dogs need mental and physical exercise, or they can get into trouble. One of the reasons our breed is so challenging is because they do tend to need more than most other breeds or we may pay the price 

Never too old to start up for some fun dog classes! How many dozens of tricks have you taught your dog? Will she play chuckit? When I am short on time but have a large field, that's the fastest way to tire my dogs out.


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

If your dog loves to run try a large hard plastic Jolly ball. My dog wears out in under 15 minutes "herding" his jolly ball. He's actually showing some really neat soccer moves with his. 

I wonder if you would like to find a Lure Coursing club. We had a friend with an older shepherd who wasn't at all interested in it but our pup loved it when we tried it once. We might do more when he gets older.


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## ILoveMyGS (Nov 25, 2014)

That thing looks amazing MaggieRoseLee. The only problem is that my girl is completely not interested in balls at all. We have an arrangement of balls for her including one that I put a treat in and she just kind of looks at it like "what exactly do you expect me to do with that?" 

My oldest daughter is starting to train for track team tryouts in the spring and I may make her take our girl running with her. This way they can both exercise at the same time. Tomorrow I'm going to try the getting up earlier and taking her for a longer walk in the morning.


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## ILoveMyGS (Nov 25, 2014)

car2ner said:


> If your dog loves to run try a large hard plastic Jolly ball. My dog wears out in under 15 minutes "herding" his jolly ball. He's actually showing some really neat soccer moves with his.
> 
> I wonder if you would like to find a Lure Coursing club. We had a friend with an older shepherd who wasn't at all interested in it but our pup loved it when we tried it once. We might do more when he gets older.


Thank you for this. I will definitely look into one. 

I really appreciate all of the responses. It is great to get some help. Everyone I know has cats. LOL


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## misfits (Jan 13, 2011)

Make up a home-made flirt pole. On days when I'm short of time fifteen minutes with the flirt pole does wonders. One of my dogs is seven too so I try to limit the jumping. And, just running through her basic obedience seems to help the mental aspect.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

Teaching her to play hide and seek with the kids will help with mental exercises and keep the kiddos busy as well! This game can even be played in the house!


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## Kyleigh (Oct 16, 2012)

While my dog is half your dog's age ... here's what she gets every day ...

45 minute off leash run every morning (5:15-6:00) I leave at 6:30 - she's crated

Ky's then picked up at 8:30 and dropped off at 2:30 (Monday - Friday) this includes 1.5 hours in the "bus" on the way to the location (have to pick up all the other dogs), a 3 hour off leash pack walk, and then another 1.5 hours to get home - during the off leash pack walk ALL of the dogs have to do obedience training (recalls, sits, downs, heels, waits, stays, etc.) and there's a million distractions because not all of the dogs are doing it at once - she randomly picks 3 or 4 dogs at a time to do obedience with while the other dogs are checking stuff ou

I'm home at 3:30 and at 4 we go out for a 45 minute structured walk (i.e on leash) and I vary where we walk - we don't walk the same place twice in a week

The evenings I do mental games with her (play hide and seek with her toys, work on impulse control with favourite toys / distractions, etc.) and then we play for about 10-15 minutes in the backyard before bed time. 

There are days that she is STILL not tired after all of this ... 

I'm not saying this is everything you have to do ... but just to show you how much these dogs CAN do, and what a lot of them need!

Good luck finding that perfect FUN game with your dog!


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Did you see this link too --> http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...ick-least-important-part-teaching-tricks.html


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## ILoveMyGS (Nov 25, 2014)

Kyleigh said:


> While my dog is half your dog's age ... here's what she gets every day ...
> 
> 45 minute off leash run every morning (5:15-6:00) I leave at 6:30 - she's crated
> 
> ...


Holy cow that is a lot. LOL

I found a pet sitter in my area that will come in during the day to give some more exercise. I think I might try that out as well. 

Thank you all again for all of the replies.


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