Wolfie is Destroying the Bed in his Crate!

Wolfie is chewing up his bed in the crate at night or when I leave him to go out.   What can I do to stop this?  Those beds are expensive!

Notice how Wolfie is sitting in his crate all happy and nice?  Well get to that in a second, but first...

Over the years I have been asked by clients how to get their dog to stop destroying the bed in their crate.  This normally happens when the client is asleep or away from the house.  The answer is quite simple.  Take the bed out of the dogs crate.  

We humans think like humans and believe that our dog must live in a human world.  At night, we get into our soft, fluffy bed and go to sleep.  When we are watching TV, we lay down on the sofa.  When we are outside, we find the lawn furniture and stretch out for a nap in the sun.  Now, lets look at Wolfie.  Wolfie sleeps on the tile floor in front of the TV.  He sleeps on the grass or on the rocks under the flowers outside.  Wolfie has no problem sleeping on hard surfaces and sometimes even prefers them to soft surfaces.

So when I tell you to take the bed out of Wolfies crate if he is chewing it up, it is not punishment, simply removing an inappropriate distraction.  When we arent there, there is now way we can correct Wolfie in the act of destroying the bed so there is no way we can effectively communicate to him that it is wrong.  All we are doing is to continue to replace the bed.  All Wolfie sees is that we are giving him more stuff to destroy.  

This is not a good thing.  Eventually, Wolfie will turn to our furniture and start to chew that up.  And, why not?  We have continued to tell him it is OK to chew up his bed and have even rewarded him by giving him a new one.  Wolfie will see no difference in chewing up the bed and destroying our two thousand dollar sofa.

Bottom line:  If Wolfie is destroying the bed in his crate, take it away.  For more information, please contact The Best Dog Trainers in South Florida.

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Lets Get Serious about Getting Wolfie to Come

Why is it the more I try and work with Wolfie to come, it seems that he only comes when he feels like it?  It feel like every time I really, really want him to come, he doesnt feel like it...

I have talked about this before, but because so many of my clients seem to need "refreshing" on this subject, I wanted to talk about it again.

Dogs learn through consistent, repetitive association. They learn that A always equals B.  When I hear this sound or see that hand action, I always do something.  "Always" does not mean sometimes.  When you tell Wolfie to come, he must always come.  If you dont provide this type of learning environment, it wont work, or take a really, really, really long time.

Here is what you do:

• Put a leash on Wolfie.  See Wolfie above?  Guess what, he has a leash on!
• Hold the leash, step back to the end of the leash, and go to your knees.
• Now, say Come.  If he doesnt come, give a little tug on the leash to guide him in your direction.
• When he reaches you, praise him for doing the right thing.

Guess what just happened!  You said "come" and Wolfie came to you.  If Wolfie didnt come to you, you gave him a little tug on the leash and he came to you.  A sound (command) resulted in a unique and consistent action.  That is how Wolfie learns and that is the method you used to teach him.

Until Wolfie will come to you every time you give the come command without your need to guide him with a gentle tug, do not say "come" if you dont have the leash.  This opens up the possibility that he wont come to you and you will no longer be consistent.  For more information, please contact The Best Dog Trainers in South Florida.

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