Hiraeth
Well-Known Member
Answer. I would teach him when he was a puppy that eating walls is not ok nor fun, also i would have done it without crate as i did with all my dogs.
That's laughable. First of all, I haven't had Zeph since he was a puppy, I rescued him at 7 months of age. Second of all, the idea that you can teach a determined and destructive chewer to NOT be a determined and destructive chewer when humans aren't around shows your inexperience with that type of dog. There's no teaching a dog who has learned that chewing is fun to not chew.
I'm not a 'crate for the sake of crating' person. Titan has free roam of the house, and has had that since 10 months of age, because he's not a chewer. I provide freedom for my dogs as soon as I am capable (and I also drive home from work on my lunch to let my crated dog out, which adds an HOUR of commute to my day).
Maybe the anti-crater sorts have never had a dog where it was a real issue.
I think that is *exactly* the situation that is occurring on this thread. Until they have a dog who is literally eat-through-the-wall destructive, they will have no idea what it's like, and will continue to make blanket statements and generalizations and ridiculous claims that destructive chewing is somehow a thing that can be trained away.
Zeph gets 2 leashed walks and one 30-40 minute off leash run a day, as well as 5-6 training sessions. So he's not understimulated or underexercised by ANY means. He found out that chewing was fun because his former family did not crate him as a puppy. Had he been crated from a young age and never been given the opportunity to figure out that ripping up carpet and eating walls was a good time, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be having this problem now.
But NOT being properly crated and supervised, along with being ignored, bored, underexercised and understimulated, is what caused Zephyr's issues (which extend far past destructive chewing).