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Ok, theres no distructive catagory so this will have to do
My youngest boy Eli, is about a year and a half old. I love this dog to peices but he has a bit of a distructive side to him. Most people would consider him the dog from h'll but I love him unconditionally and I happen to see his distructive behavior as simply having an overactive mind.
Needless to say I've had to crate him all this time while I'm gone. I've tried testing him to see if maybe he's outgrown this behavior only to come home to a mess. A short list of things that he's distroyed is the bathroom wall (BIG hole chewed right thru it), carpet in one room pulled up and distroyed, hole in middle room wall, shreded bedding (mine, not his), pillows (I actually had to get into the habit of buying the cheap ones at Wal Mart in bulk) featherbed, mattress (all the padding chewed up leaving only the springs and a few peices of fabric here and there), the leather loveseat chewed and now this week (I'll explain) I now have a matching leather sofa as he chewed a hole in that as well.
So to make a long story shorted, he really has outgrown the crate so what I did was I built a Kennel in the middle bedroom just for him. I used welded wire material (its strong) and actually build a kennel inside the room. The first day he found a weak spot and escaped. I knew I was in trouble when I wallked up the path towards my house and he was in the window smiling at me with stuffing stuck on the end of his tongue). Ok, so I strengthened that area. Next day, I guess I hadn't strengthened it enough and once again he escaped. This time damage was limited to some bedding and one pillow-no big deal. Yesterday I really strengthened it and there was no way he could get out. He tried, oh boy did he try!!! And thats why this post....he mutilated his little nose trying to get out-he has little cuts all up and down his muzzle. My question is should I continue to use this kennel and just hope he gets use to it? Or should I put him back in his crate where he doesnt have nearly enough room to move around let alone play?
Theres plenty of toys, treats, chewies, kongs, etc in the kennel and he doesn't mind going in there in the morning but did I ruin it by initually making it so that he was able to find a way out and thats all he wants to do now is to try to escape? I just don't want him getting hurt. I think I've changed the areas where he must of pushed his nose into so I'm hoping he's ok today. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks

Needless to say I've had to crate him all this time while I'm gone. I've tried testing him to see if maybe he's outgrown this behavior only to come home to a mess. A short list of things that he's distroyed is the bathroom wall (BIG hole chewed right thru it), carpet in one room pulled up and distroyed, hole in middle room wall, shreded bedding (mine, not his), pillows (I actually had to get into the habit of buying the cheap ones at Wal Mart in bulk) featherbed, mattress (all the padding chewed up leaving only the springs and a few peices of fabric here and there), the leather loveseat chewed and now this week (I'll explain) I now have a matching leather sofa as he chewed a hole in that as well.
So to make a long story shorted, he really has outgrown the crate so what I did was I built a Kennel in the middle bedroom just for him. I used welded wire material (its strong) and actually build a kennel inside the room. The first day he found a weak spot and escaped. I knew I was in trouble when I wallked up the path towards my house and he was in the window smiling at me with stuffing stuck on the end of his tongue). Ok, so I strengthened that area. Next day, I guess I hadn't strengthened it enough and once again he escaped. This time damage was limited to some bedding and one pillow-no big deal. Yesterday I really strengthened it and there was no way he could get out. He tried, oh boy did he try!!! And thats why this post....he mutilated his little nose trying to get out-he has little cuts all up and down his muzzle. My question is should I continue to use this kennel and just hope he gets use to it? Or should I put him back in his crate where he doesnt have nearly enough room to move around let alone play?
Theres plenty of toys, treats, chewies, kongs, etc in the kennel and he doesn't mind going in there in the morning but did I ruin it by initually making it so that he was able to find a way out and thats all he wants to do now is to try to escape? I just don't want him getting hurt. I think I've changed the areas where he must of pushed his nose into so I'm hoping he's ok today. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks