Training Your Dog to be Home Alone by Sharon Delarose

Author:Sharon Delarose [Delarose, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-08-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHEWED UP BASE OF WATER DISPENSER

Dogs chew for a variety of reasons. A dog who is bored might be looking for a way to entertain themselves. Sometimes dog play gets a little rambunctious and objects get destroyed. Some dogs don't do well when left alone for too many hours. Some dogs even have issues if you ignore them a lot when you're at home.

Active breeds like herding dogs and sporting dogs need to be kept busy. If you don't provide them with outlets for their energy they will make their own outlets. Young dogs of any breed are full of energy and if you don't exercise them, all of that pent up energy will find a way out - usually in a bad way. Dogs don't even start to calm down until they're about three.

Dakota was all of the above. She had abandonment fears so whenever we left her she became distressed. Being an Australian Cattle Dog/Siberian Husky mix put her in the high energy working dog category. In addition, Dakota was young and full of energy.

Would you trust a toddler to his own devices?

(Then why do you trust your dog?)

Dakota was a chewer. She reminded us of a baby bird. Her mouth was always open with the expectation of latching onto something and if it sensed an object nearby, it attempted to grab onto the object. I don't think she consciously thought about it. Her mouth seemed to be a live thing unto itself. If something came into the range of her mouth, she latched onto it and started to chew. It wasn't malicious - it just was.

In the early days we learned not to leave Dakota alone in the house out of sight. If she disappeared around a corner I was hot on her tail. Not only did she chew but Dakota was in her curious stage, exploring the world around her like a young child discovering the wonders of the world for the first time.

Parents with young toddlers often child-proof their homes making sure to cover electrical outlets, move glass objects off of low tables, install child-proof locks on low cupboards, use baby gates, put hook locks high up on screen doors, and so forth. The goal is to protect the child from injury and to prevent your home from being destroyed by an innocent child who simply doesn't understand that knocking a glass vase off the table and breaking it is bad. It takes years to teach a child the many rules of life and in the meantime you must watch over him.

Your dog is no different. Dogs don't know that chewing on electrical cords can kill them any more than toddlers do. Dogs aren't born into the world knowing that a table leg isn't something for them to chew on. Consider this: A dog in nature will chew on tree branches and to your dog, the table leg is just another piece of wood. You must teach your dog just as you would a child: object by object.

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