Taradiddle81

Thanks Catherine! He gets walked 4km a day! It has been suggested to me that he is being walked too much for his age, so I don't think that I can increase it anymore! It was during the day that he destroyed it, not at night though. I tried leaving a kong wobbler, and Elly loves it, and if he goes near it she gets possessive of it (I don't blame her, he has taken everything else!) So I can give it to them when I am there to supervise, but not alone. Mind you, she needs to stand up for herself and put him in his place, so perhaps it's not a bad idea. I will give it to them on weekends when I can keep an eye on it, until I feel happy with leaving it, but it wont' really solve anything because Elly will have it! I might get him one of the normal kongs. I do have a rubber bone with holes in the end that I stuff with peanut butter, haven't done that for a couple of weeks, might give that a go too! I will also try rotating his toys every day. Biggest problem is that it will get VERY expensive if we have to keep buying beds until we find what works! Definitely think the spray might be a go for keeping him from chewing her bedding... she doesn't chew it, so it shouldn't worry her (unless the smell turns her off!)

Hi All, We picked up an 8 month old rescue Rotty, Bandit. We have now adopted him. He is untrained. We have made some progress in that he doesn't jump up anymore and he will walk on the lead without pulling (for DP anyway!) and will sit intermittently. We have him booked into dog training starting in a few weeks. He has chewed various things (the watering system, the outdoor lights that were wired in, plastic pots etc) but nothing that we weren't prepared to lose. Our 5yo Rotty Elly normally sleeps in her kennel and has a foam filled mat that is (was!) in her kennel with a cotton blanket on that. We gave Bandit Ellys "day bed" which is one of those steel frames that normally has hessian but DP replaced it with potato sack when Elly was a pup and chewed through it. After about a week, Bandit started pulling Elly's mattress out of her kennel. He would just pull it out and sleep on it. So we bought another mattress (but cheaper, because we figured he might chew it!) and gave him that. Next morning there is foam everywhere. Today during the day, he has pulled Elly's mattress out and chewed it into pieces. DP is beyond annoyed (he is angry that Bandit has destroyed Ellys things.) So, how do you get him to stop chewing? I figure there is 2 choices... get another bed and fix it into the bottom of the kennel and hope he doesn't try to rip it out anyway. Or put the mattress out at night and take it back in, in the morning and hope he doesn't chew it at night. I guess I can give #1 a go with a cheap bed and see how it goes. So, given he is 8 months and we have him booked into training, is age or training going to help? At 8 months, I figured he should have stopped, which means that he hasn't been stopped by his old owners. My biggest concern is that we live in the ACT and in winter, Elly will need a mattress in the kennel for warmth! If Bandit chews his own and is then cold, then that is his issue, but I don't want Elly affected! ETA: I suspect his previous owner may have been at home during the day, as she had small children, whereas we are at work.

She is beautiful and that is fantastic that she has a loving forever home!

Definitely works differently here. Older animals (ie not little kittens or puppies) are temperament and health tested, and then classified (ie green for moderately active, fine for families with kids... orange for highly active and good for families with teens or no kids... the cats are similar but are based on how they go with kids and other cats and/or pets.) My kitten that I got last week comes with a 2 week health guarantee, so if the kitten gets sick with someone it would have caught at the shelter you take it back to the RSPCA Vet Clinic and the treatment is free. I am taking him in today, because it looks like he has cat flu There are some serious illnesses (one of which I think is parvo) that they can't deal with there, so they will offer you to choose another animal or get your money back.

LOL! Elly (Rotti) - Elysha (her actual pedigree name), Els, Elly-mog, Mog, puppy, puppy-mog, darling One day I tried calling her random names seeing which she would come to... she responded to anything similar to the above... she didn't come for Brunhilda though hehehe Lexi (Bengal kitten) - Electra (was her inital name, but Lexi is easier to day!), Lecki-puss, skitty (guess why LOL), ninja kitty (DP's 2yo niece couldn't say Lexi, and DSD1 was teaching DN to say "lexi come" so DN was saying "Lecki, come!" so that is where Lecki comes from ) Syd (kitten from RSPCA, but looks and acts incredibly like a Russian Blue) - Sydney, little man