Destructiveness April 26, 2008

It is infuriating to come home and discover your couch has been shredded by the dog! Little dogs can make a mess, but giant dogs like Danes can make a disaster area of the living room. Destructiveness is a really tough thing to live with, and equally tough to understand and stop.

Puppies teethe, and will chew anything they can get their mouth on. At roughly 2 months they start to cut baby teeth, and again at 6 months. So chewing becomes intense at that time. My current fella, Kenai, can take down an 8″ bone in a single day. A past love, Brazos, chewed a 4×4 post in half when he was 7 months old. And a past love, Merlin, could dig a hole big enough to hide in!

Digging, excessive chewing, and other destructive behaviors are an anxiety/frustration based behavior. So trying to give corrections (“No”, “Bad Dog!”, etc) will only add to their anxiety because you are frustrated and displeased. The trick is to teach the dog how to relax.

The first thing to check is if the dog is getting enough interactive exercise. By interactive I mean playing with you. Fetch, rollerblading, skateboarding, jogging, obedience training, and water retrieving are all interactive exercises. The dog gets your attention and companionship, as well as the opportunity to burn off energy.

It is the combination of exercise and human interaction that is effective in calming and satisfying a dog’s needs. Some dogs will respond right away, some will take longer in learning to play with you in a way you want. Since destructiveness is anxiety based, any frustration on your part only makes it worse. Patience is more than a virtue, it is a necessity. The beautiful thing about dogs is that they try so hard to do what we want. If you want to teach a dog to relax, you have to be relaxed yourself!

If the destructiveness isn’t only when you’re gone, there is something in the environment causing them frustration. Sometimes it is a noise: barking dogs, big trucks, air planes…I’ve even heard of a dog who hated the sound of an air compressor. Sometimes it is a presence: a cat they don’t like, a person who is tense or angry, children who torment the dog when you aren’t looking.

For Brazos, the problem was my father, who was angry and abusive, and the resulting instability in our family. When my parents seperated, he returned to chewing bones instead of the deck. With Merlin, a rescue, he needed enormous amounts of exercise and crate training to calm down.

There is an excellent book called “Calming Signals” by Turid Rugaas that can help you identify when and what is stressing your dog. It is a simple, easy read, and loaded with help. She is amazingly sensitive to a dog’s emotions, and there are tons of pictures.

Once you know what triggers anxiety in your dog, you can begin creating a new association to the trigger. For example, if the dog becomes anxious when they hear your keys, chose a time when the dog is relaxed and happy to jingle the keys. When they are done playing with you, jingle the keys while they stretch out on the bed and lay the keys next to them. Jingle the keys to begin their play session or while they eat. Jingle the keys when they go to the crate for a nap. Anytime the dog is in a happy state of mind, make the noise, and it changes the association: keys=lonely becomes keys=nap in the crate.

Dogs are social animals, and being alone is extremely stressful on them. It is necessary to leave our dogs, and that is typically when dogs are the most destructive. So we have to find ways to reduce the stress of it. A tired dog is always easier to relax! And a crated dog can’t get to the trash can. They can destroy everything in the crate, though, even their favorite toys and bedding.

I can’t stand the thought of leaving my Dane to lay on a cold metal crate floor. And it is very hard on their joints. So there is a company that has a totally chew proof bed, they will replace if it is ruined. http://www.kuranda.com/ And the bed is easily moved in and out of the crate if you like.

Destroying things when frustrated can become a habit, too. There is no way to remove all stress from a dog’s life, anymore than we can do that for ourselves. Frustration is going to happen, so in addition to exercising and training your dog, you need to create a relaxing atmosphere in their crate. It becomes a place they can go that is safe, with comforting and pleasurable associations.

Put your dog’s food and water in their crate, leaving it open of course. Reserve favorite toys and chews for the crate only, as well. When your dog is done with their exercise and is feeling relaxed, let them go into the crate to rest. When they are comfortable there, go and give them a nice long massage! Whatever you find that relaxes your dog, whatever they find most pleasurable, do it in the crate.

Crates for Great Danes are huge, heavy, and expensive. Expensive goes with the territory of owning a giant dog. You want one that is big enough for the dog to stand up, to stretch out, and sturdy enough to stand up to any abuse. They can be found at pet stores, or on the internet. One place is https://www.muttmart.com/Crates-Kennels-Carriers-Wire-Crates.html and a google search can turn up lots of options for you.