German Shepherds Forum banner

In.the.doghouse!

1K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  ShenzisMom 
#1 ·
Went to work and crated Beth in my room. What could go wrong?

1) She broke out of her crate.
2) Shredded my bedspread
3) Ate through the bathroom trash.
4) Chewed through the mask and tubing to hubby's C-Pap machine.
5) Ripped up my carpet
6) Left a steamy pile of poop in the center of the room.

...and...

Greeted hubby with all the excitement and joy of puppy youth.

Silver lining (because I have to look for the positive):

- She was blocked off from my living room.
- The cats are all safe.
- Lesson learned: From here on out, NEVER trust a crate implicitly. Beth will spend my working hours (3.5 hrs) in her outdoor pen. She will NEVER be left in the home when there are no humans.
 
See less See more
#3 ·
Nigel...it was lesss time than that. 2.5 hours, to be exact. That's when hubby called me with a quiet voice and said, "You need to come home." Given his ten dance towards excitability, I knew this had to be something huge. Thankfully, it wasn't as huge as I'd imagined. Thank God! First thing was to ask if our kids were okay, then the cats.
 
#5 ·
Aww heck, thats nothing.. Our first female years ago gave us a run for our money. First day home alone... (Before we got a crate)

1. Food in bathroom was ALL OVER the bedroom and bathroom
2. Spilled the LARGE bowl of water, making the spilled food mushy.. and muched it was as she walked thru it a gazillion times.
3. Pulled the blinds off the windows, and chewed them up
4. Pulled the curtains down from the windows.
5. Left 1 pile of poops at the base of the bed, walked thru it a gazillion times, and got the poop into the nooks and crannies of our dressors when she was pulling the lamps down. She got poop in the heater vents, floor, wall and more.
6. Pulled the comforter off the bed, and tracked poop all over it.
7. Pulled ALL the clothes off their hangers from the walk in closet into the bedroom and tracked poop all over those too.
8. Crushed the lamp shades and got poop all over those too.

When we got home, from work it was either laugh or cry... We laughed, cleaned up the mess, took a trip to the laundry matte to wash what we could. Then a trip to the Pet store to buy a good solid crate.

Lesson learned.
 
#6 ·
We have another crate....the cage-like crate, but it's a little small for her. Unfortunately for her, when she sits in it, her ears bend. She'll have to wait until payday for a new crate.
 
#9 ·
Yikes! I guess I haven't had it too bad so far then. On different occasions our 2 1/2 year old rescue has broken out of his crate, chewed up an expensive pair of sunglasses, shredded my wife's books, eaten 3 comcast remotes (they just laughed the last time and handed us another one free of charge) 1 dvd remote, 1 xbox controller, assorted mail, our christmas cards (sniff), a dog harness, the corner of his wicker toy basket, and several wooden picture frames with the pictures in them (breaking the glass in the process). Along the way he found half a corn cob somehow and thankfully coughed it back up.
 
#12 ·
With our boy its separation anxiety and working line drives. He's wound pretty tight. We're still trying to get a handle on his restlessness. His teeth already showed signs of cage chewing when adopted so I am hesitant to keep him in the metal cage crate I bought him unsupervised if he's going to start that behavior again. Remotes and such are now kept far out of reach. If he wants to ignore his chew bones and chew on a cardboard box, fine, we leave him the cardboard box. It seems to be an occasional thing now, most times we return a few hours later and all is fine.
 
#13 ·
Man am I glad Shasta was such an easy puppy and still a very easy dog. yikes. Riley on the other hand was a nightmare. he went after the expensive stuff too. He murdered several pairs of my father in laws $200 uniform shoes (6 pairs total by the time he finally stopped going for them), he mutilated several bed spreads, counter surfing (came home to find EVERYTHING that had been on the counter, scattered around the kitchen), he chewed his way through a gate and dragged one of the cat boxes all over the house... he was difficult.
 
#14 ·
Fiona has had free run of the house at night since 5 months old. So far nothing destroyed. {fingers crossed}. She destroyed her crate, the wire cage like one. She chewed loose several of the metal poles, then bent the bottom poles by pulling it in. I tried a fabric crate ( like a tent) and she does somersaults with it and runs into things with it. I am grateful, she is good 90% of the time.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App
 
#15 ·
My husband and I went to the doctor and pharmacy today, and came home to a broken window. :eek: Leo, my GSD, was crated in the living room, but Ilka and Lucky, my mutt and Rattie, stay baby-gated in the bedroom, which is where the broken window was. Thankfully, both of them, and all the house cats, where still inside, and the only injury appears to be a tiny little cut on Ilka's foot. I assume Lucky and Ilka saw something outside, and when they went to bark at it, hit the window and broke it. :( Sooo, yet another windowpane to be replaced with Lexan. That makes number 8, I believe. On the bright side, I've gotten pretty good at replacing windowpanes. :p

I'm also going to put up one of those grills that they put on screen doors. I have one on the other window, and was planning on getting one for this window, too. Just not this soon.
 
#16 ·
I don't know of anyone, who has had many dogs----no matter HOW well trained they end up, did not go through at least one or more experiences like yours at some point or other.

I was rehab officer for a nationally known and award winning breed rescue for 10 years. I received the hardest cases from amoung rescues and surrenders from 8 states. I never had a dog that I did not manage to rehab, to be obedient and well mannered. But, I also had many, many failures such as you had(or worse). It just comes with the territory.

If you have a failure, you just back up to where things were going well and start over again. You can't know what they'll do until you try them. If they didn't get it this time----they'll get it the next time.

You have plenty of company. The better and more experienced the trainer..........the more times this has happened to them.

The trainer is constantly learning too, and there seems to be no end to the ways that dogs can figure out how to outsmart you. You just get a little smarter each time they do.
 
#17 ·
Shenzi is terrified during lightning storms. She breaks out of her crate everytime. Most I can tell is she snuggles with the cat and waits for us to come back :) She's 6 now, but in her younger days she did her fair share of 'having fun'...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top