2 year old dog STILL chewing everything...HELP!

[momof2boys]

Our dog is a little over two years old and is driving me crazy!  We think he is a great pyrenees/great dane mix (shelter dog, but thats what he looks like).  He is very tall and 130 pounds so he can reach everything!  Our main problem is he still chews/eats things.  The first  year and a half I wasn't sure we'd all survive. I couldn't let him out of my sight for a minute or he'd eat/chew something.  He seemed to improve for awhile, but only when we are home.  When we aren't home he gets into trouble.  The problem is he's also figured out he can break out of his crate!  So when we leave he gets out of his crate and chews on things.  

He goes to doggy daycare two half days a week (he was going full days but started to become aggressive towards another dog in the afternoon.  He's fine all morning with the other dog, I think he just gets tired faster then the smaller dogs and wanted a break, so I pick him up during my lunch break at work).   I am lucky that I can keep a kennel at work and bring him with me.  But with him breaking out of his kennel at home I feel like we can't ever leave the house!  First it looked like he was standing up and popping the top locks and then pushing his way out.  Then I tried zip tying the corners he was breaking out of and he bent the metal and got out. 

I knew we had to leave the house this weekend for about 1 1/2 hours so I bought him a new toy,  picked up everything I thought he would get into (that can be picked up, kind of hard to move my couch into another room) and hoped for the best.  Came home and he had chewed up a library book that I hadn't seen when picking up.  Last week it was my couch. 

He is a fairly lazy dog when in the house (he runs at daycare and in our yard but mostly just lays around and occasionally plays with chew toys in the house). The weather here has been horrible so he hasn't gotten a ton of long walks, that will hopefully start back up again soon.   He is great with my kids, and if it wasn't for the chewing would be a great dog.  My last dog was a huge chewer for his entire life and had anxiety issues so the thought of another 10 years of living with a dog who chews all my stuff is causing me stress!  I did contact a trainer who said their services wouldn't really help us, that we could fix this ourselves.  I'm not really sure how since I don't usually catch him in the act so I can't really discipline him or replace the object with a toy. 

Any ideas of ways to curb this issue?  Good toys for chewers, etc. HELP! 

[G22]

Our German Shepherd was a Houdini and used to break out of his cage and destroy things in the house. We had to wire it shut at all the points where it could collapse and then put 2 extra clips on the front door to keep him in. Thankfully he has grown out of that. Part of his issue was he had major separation anxiety, so we ended up getting a 2nd dog. That helped our issues, but I know that's not a fix for everyone

Have you heard of West Paw Design? They have some tough toys that my dogs have yet to kill. And they have killed everything to date. And they will replace it if your dog ruins it, just keep your receipt in case! www.westpawdesign.com/dogs/dog-toys/zogoflex-dog-toys

Have you tried bones like this: www.walmart.com/ip/Nylabone-Nylabone-Original-Bone-Dog-Chew-Toy/15013192 These hold up for a long time with our dogs. The first one we got over 4 years ago and its still barely around.

ETA: Do you have a room with a door you can put the cage in, that if he did break out there was very little he could destroy? Like a mud room, spare bedroom, etc? That's also what we do. We don't have to kennel the dogs when we leave the house anymore as they all outgrew eating things like carpet and walls, but we still put them in a room so they don't roam the house and find things to get into.

[momof2boys]

Thanks for the response! I have honestly thought about getting another dog, I even dreampt I did it and in my dream it helped! My concern is if it doesn't help, and/or I end up with a dog who also chews or has some other horrible habit i'll be worse off then I am right now!

Blocking off my house is challenging but once I finish the staircase (which I am forcing myself to fit in sometimes this week) I am going to try putting his crate back in our room and shutting our door. His crate used to be in our room and he would run to it and seemed to like it but b/c we are working on our staircase and i'm painting every other tread (so we can still get up there, but clearly the dog isn't going to skip steps), we had to move the crate. Though I fear he'll chew my bedroom furniture and he has a history of chewing quilts (that my mother makes) so i'll have to remove our bedding everyday. I thought about trying to clear out our laundry room and put the crate in there b/c there would be little for him to destroy, but i'm afraid he'd panic b/c he hates change and has never been in that room. The first time I moved his crate he broke out and when I got home an hour later he was running around the house all panicked.

We have a few nylabone toys, but I have never heard of west paw design, I will look into that! We have had good luck with orbee toys as well, though he doesn't sit and chew them very often, but will occasionally. Ironically I had bought him a new toy the day he ate the library book...the toy was sitting within a foot of the book...

[G22]

It never hurts to bring this up at your next vet visit. They may have some ideas you haven't thought of yet. If you wanted to change the room he'lll be in (like the laundry room), you could try slowly introducing the room. Like start out maybe feeding him in it, giving treats for going in there to show its a safe place, etc. Rather than just moving the crate in and putting him in a strange room.

Like the PP mentioned, maybe find a room that can be his safe place for good may help his anxiety. Once our GSD got past his separation anxiety, his cage is now his safe place. We move a lot because my H is mililtary so the room changes, but no matter where we live his cage is always there.

Another thing we tried while trying to help with his anxiety was covering his cage with a blanket or sheet. I read somewhere that it could help him feel a little more comfortable in the cage. It seemed to help some (but occasionally at first he'd pull it into the cage so I'm not sure how that might work for your pup). Now 4 years later, I still have a sheet over his cage and he seems to leave it alone.

For us, it was really easy to know our dog had separation anxiety. We got him from a family that had 2 other dogs and a few kids. And when we adopted him, he was our first dog so it was just my H and I. He was fine when we were around, but when we left and he was alone he went crazy. So we kind of knew getting a 2nd dog could possibly help solve our issues. I hope you can find a system that works for your pup!

[lavender444]

I have a GSD with anxiety as well. When we first got him, when he was 1.5 years, he had to be in a crate when we left. Or he would eat lamps and anything else he could find. I'm assuming you have a metal crate? Have you considered getting on of the plastic hard side crates? Our guy can break out of the metal ones, but not the plastic crates.

We also have to do a lot of mental stimulation for our GSD. Our dog park has an agility course, and we work through those. We also do a lot of things involving the stay command, so he learns to be patient. It's all helped a lot. He is now 3, and I'm able to leave the house without him crated. He does still hang out in there anyways since it's become his safe place.

Good luck!

[mongoose]

Getting a 2nd dog really helped our 1sts separation anxiety, but it also came with the work and issues of having two!

I'd try to find a room to baby gate him in, securely. Will he break out of baby gates too? I've never had a dog that broke out of kennels, so I'm not much help there. But I definitely feel like he should not have full run of the house in the event he does break out of the crate.