Scales of Justice Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 best4koda, You have answered your own question. A dog of this sort needs more attention and or more exercise (preferably both). Three walks a week is not enough. She needs more exercise, especially daily. What would also benefit her much more than the exercise as well would be to feel to be part of your family, ie. a house dog where she can see what's going on around her and to interact with her human "pack" and where her human pack can guide her bad behaviour as she does it. Dogs of this type require stimulation mental and physical. She is also very young and will not turn the corner until after three years of age in terms of settling down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scales of Justice Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) Also, try some challenging toys, like a rubber tyre (toy type available at pet outlets) attached to rope tied to a tree or a high point where the tyre swings at head height (you can put treats inside the bottom of the tyre). Also try other toys with treats inside (kongs etc) - they give some joy for a while. Used 3 litre drink bottles (used for juice etc) emptied, delabelled and washed are enjoyment for busy GSDs. Marrow bones are a challenge for most dogs and they can't eat a whole lot of the bone so diarrhoea is not a problem. Edited to add: You said you were crating her when you are not home, if that is for long periods you may need to watch that she doesn't become a boredom barker. Edited July 22, 2011 by Scales of Justice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 With the rain this week I've had to be inventive Yes I walk in the rain but Thursday was unbelievable! 10 mins and I was soaked through even with rain gear. We did lots of shaping and trick training. Current indoor projects are - shaping standing 4 feet in a box, shaping lying down on a mat, shaping a retrieve (with all 3 dogs), shaping the beginning of Treibball, shaping bow. Also some training in drive should help give you a great motivational tool for focus and obedience work and take the edge off the energy. I have young kids too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Kavik, do you have a site about training in drive? I am interested in learning about it. Yes Koda will be getting walked in the rain today as hubby's home. It will break my cabin fever too. Well I chuffed off to the pet store today. I did see tug toys online that someone suggested that you could tie from trees etc but we don't have one in the yard. I maybe able to do similar but attach it too some steel posts in the fence...concerned she would pull too hard for the pole though. But I came home with a very hard squeaky ball with short legs on it, made of the rubber of kongs. I have to use 2 hands to squeak it so it should be good. She's going to town on it as I type. Also picked up a bell Kong to fill with kibble for her as well. While I was away Hubby busted her ripping wood off the garage door trim. Just standing there ripping away.....aaarrrrrgh! Hopefully I have relieved the toy issue a little, she also has a standard kong, assorted other softer toys, rope toy, milk bottles, a large stick as well. Will check out the antlersbones as well SecretKei. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 K9Pro is a good one to help with training in drive I am still learning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 K9Pro is a good one to help with training in drive I am still learning. I was reading some of his info online a while ago, must get back to it I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 SecretKei, that link is no longer. Do you have another or an outside link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Crazy Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I love the Antler Chew's. My 2 chew away for ages on them. They are pretty safe too. Don't seem to splinter. I used to give mine pigs ears until Sonny nearly choked to death on one,OH had to get a pair of plyers & retrieve a piece of ear out of his throat they are banned from our house now. The only other chew my lot get are vegetarian pigs ears or the Antlers. Not worth the risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Pigs ears a no go here either. Mine can't have the marrow bones as she demolishes them and then we have the runs and a vet bill. Where do you get the deer chews from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) SecretKei, that link is no longer. Do you have another or an outside link? The link worked for me? But here is one directly to the website http://www.whelpings...iewCat&catId=40 ETA Oh, just realised that you don't have enough posts to access OT which is why the linky wont work for you. Edited July 23, 2011 by SecretKei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) .double post Edited July 23, 2011 by SecretKei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TsarsMum Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 train her with her tea. what ever you feed make her work for it. 5 mins of work lots of thinking. she needs to think not just excersise. means u dont have to walk her heaps but get her mind ticking over. lots of new tricks to teacher her even sits stays etc. good luck my boy has decided to chew all sorts up damn teenage dogs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinabean Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I hate to say it but 'trying' to walk a high drive GSD 3 times a week is no where near enough exercise. I would say she is bored and full of energy. My GSD definitely requires a daily walk and mental stimulation or she will take it upon herself to provide her own entertainment! No argument here, but I have small kids and hubby is defence so at least I reserve the 3 days the youngest is in preschool to walk her. They can't keep up with the dog and myself otherwise I would drage them along. If hubby is home I walk her at night. Taking to providing entertainment for herself is the guts of the issue. I will not disagree. Best4Koda I am in a similar situation (young kids +husband who works away). I can understand the difficulty you are having with an energetic/bored dog. If my husband is not away I can walk the dog at the crack of dawn. I can do longer walks on the days that my youngest is in kindy. When he is away the walks only happen on the days that both my kids are at school and kindy. My dog is much easier to live with when he gets a daily walk. Life just doesn't always work that way though. I gather your dog is ok with chicken if you are able to give her chicken carcasses? One product that I find useful to keep my dog occupied is chicken jerky (dried chicken breast) wedged firmly into a Kong. You can shove it in so firmly that it takes ages for the dog to get it. I like it because my dog can stomach it (unlike lots of treats that contain loads of different ingredients that cause the runs in my dog!) The brand is Wanpy and it's ingredients are: chicken breast, potato starch, glycerol and salt. The deer antlers sound good and I'm going to try my dog with them. Also on a sunny day I sometimes sprinkle my dogs kibble on the lawn in the backyard. It takes him way longer than eating from a bowl, and he seems to love the 'hunt'. I agree too with others who have suggested doing some short training sessions to stimulate her mentally. Maybe part of her food for the day could be 'earned' in training? Even just 5 mins here and there, when you can? Good luck with her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) I replied in the other thread. Where did you get your dog from? I would consider taking her to Schutzhund club in order to learn how to harness her drive and use it for good not evil :p You dont have to do the bite component but the obedience and tracking would do that dogs brain and drive a world of good. Trainers there will be the best bet for your dog a it is their speciality. http://www.schutzhundaustralia.com/ Your dog sounds like its just bored and extremely frustrated hence the destruction. Dogs that keep being destructive just have not had their needs met. Edited July 23, 2011 by Nekhbet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiara&Heidi Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) You should probably be walking her for one hour daily minimum. I know you said it's hard to find time so I guess the only option is to wake up earlier (I often have to wake up at 5am to walk my Staffy otherwise she will whinge all day). Also try multiple Kongs with whatever moist food you choose (such as soaked kibble or mince meat), and freeze them overnight. You will probably need the XXL black one for your GSD and it should take her a while to empty. There are a lot of other treat dispensers available - I would stock up on them - by the time your girl is finished emptying them all out she will probably be tired of chewing and ready for a sleep. Good luck Edited July 23, 2011 by arielle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 How do you satisfy her high drive? Nekhbets suggestion was good, dogs high in prey drive need to satisfy this, K9Pro does a very good training in drive distance package, or you could ask your GSD club about training in drive. Most of these programs will involve training the dog to use a tug with the handler to satisfy the drive. They are also heaps of fun. Exercise doesn't sound like the answer, although your dog needs more than 3 days a week. In my opinion any active young dog needs at least once a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 (edited) When Elbie was a very young puppy he used to enjoy gnawing on the wooden railings of the deck, his dog bed - one time we caught him gnawing on the corner of some bricks!!! Hoover we caught nibbling at the blinds and also both of them gnawed at the clam shell. Neither of them chew anymore (Elbie is 17 months and Hoover is 12 months). What's most important is that you find out what it is that occupies and entertains your dog. For a lot of dogs it's lots of walks and exercise and I see that given as advice a lot on DOL - most of the time it's probably good advice but I know that for my two dogs, they can play and run for AGES and still keep going because they just never get tired. They train for a whole hour during class and while they get bored at particular bits, they never lose focus towards the end of the class etc. You could run them for ages before a class and they'd still be full of energy during the class. Both of our dogs are high energy and from working lines. Elbie in particular is very drivey but we definitely don't walk them every day - maybe 3-4 times a week. I also don't walk my dogs in the rain. I'm sure it's fun for some but I don't enjoy it at all. What we do with our dogs is they get obedience once a week, Elbie does agility once a week and they get a 15 minute training session every day at dinner time. For breakfast, we scatter their kibble in the yard for them to retrieve which takes them about 15 minutes :p They also get chew toys in the yard and toilet rolls. If there's something that they do that's naughty e.g. drag dog pillow around, then we take it away and give it back several weeks later and usually by then they've given up on that behaviour. They have access to the kitchen throughout the day when we're not home and there's never any damage despite there being plenty of furniture and food in reach. After we get home, outside of their mealtime training, OH usually plays hide and week with them and they're randomly given little training sessions in exchange for treats. Some targeting training, some rear-end awareness training. Sometimes it's little stuff like just balancing a treat on their nose, doing out of sight stays, doing long sit stays/drop stays or making them drop on the way to food. I'm teaching them both to 'hold' a dumbbell in their mouth right now. These activities don't take long - OH and I both work so the dogs are at home for at least ten hours, sometimes twelve hours so in winter any training happens in tiny spots after work and teeny bit on the weekend. We definitely don't have huge amounts of time to spend on dog training and the dogs seem happy with the amount they get so long as they get to hang out with their humans. I'm not sure if any of that will work for your dog but it definitely does for ours. Like I said, the DOL advice of 'exercise your dog more' didn't work for us - nothing ever tires my dogs out - they could run for ages and still keep running and training but the above things seem to keep them happy and occupied so that even if they go for weeks without a walk, they never nuisance bark or show any destructive behaviours. Good luck! Edited July 24, 2011 by koalathebear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Hi, thanks for all the advice. I am slowly plugging away thru it. I managed to walk Koda 3 times on the weekend so that's a start. New toys of been entertaining for her and I am slowly reading bits and pieces of the info people have put up. Hopefully we will ease the effect. Koalathebear, I think my koda is a similar chewing to yours. Koda has been found chewing concrete, the mortar from between the bricks in the house, she digs up the crushed granit to get to the blue gravel to chew, hoses, hose reel, pedals on all bikes left out, handles of the kids scooters, made tooth picks out of my sons wooden tool box which he left out but was inside the climbing castle so she really went looking for it. Not a tool survived and I had trouble seeing where they went, she had chewed them into tiny pieces and they were lost in the lawn, my first reaction was oh my god vet bill! Wooden frame around garage door, chewed the laundry door frame when pup. boots, my daughters headband which she found in 5 minutes of freedom.....arrrrgh...We usually put everything away within reason but I also think some things need to be left out so they learn what is not theirs to chew. I couldn't believe the effort she put in on the tool box and my son was devastated and wouldn't speak to the dog for a week, valuable lesson for Mr 4yr old though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 you dont go to the GSD club you go to the Schutzhund club. A dog that chews mortar and concrete to that level of destruction is not something to wait around to get to. The dog needs to work and should have started as a pup. Who sold you such a high drive dog in the first place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted July 27, 2011 Author Share Posted July 27, 2011 you dont go to the GSD club you go to the Schutzhund club. A dog that chews mortar and concrete to that level of destruction is not something to wait around to get to. The dog needs to work and should have started as a pup. Who sold you such a high drive dog in the first place? Hi Nekbet,we started obedience with her at the GSD club as soon as we could. I tried to contact the schutzhund club by their site but the email function isn't working. Do you know anything about the branch in sydney? Sorry I don't think the breeder can be blamed for this one. This is our 3rd shepherd and we took our time picking a pup and the breeder tried to pick the most even natured pup as we have kids. She did, this girl presented as a very calm puppy, She was slightly reserved but interested and very calm....ah! She was just fooling us! We did not see the signs till quite a while later. And she is lovely nature otherwise, nothing seems to phase her and will be a very sturdy family dog I think when we can her drive undercontrol and come out the other side of maturity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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