Well, my family has a 6 month old Northern Inuit puppy, and i'm not sure how to stop her destructive behaviour.
She's ok if someone is with her, but if you even go to the toilet for 2 minutes she'll ignore her toys and chews and destroy something around the house.
She gets very upset if we go out and leave her, even though we have another dog to keep her company and she'll just rip everything appart.
We are also having to sleep downstairs on the sofa so we don't wake up to find the sofa in peices around the house.

It seems almost impossible to stop behaviour you arn't there to witness untill it's too late, so any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

have you thought to crate her while your not there to stop her chewing???

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She hates that even more and get very stressed out and usually goes to the toilet in it and then sits in it and lays in it and just makes a really horrible mess.

We have been considering getting her an outdoor kennel and pen, but that will take up a lot of space, time and money. Money being the thing we are mostly lacking.

Have you tried food treats inside toys? We find the kong toys quite good as you can put puppy paste and bits of kibble in, our 6 month sheltie gets that when we go out and he dosn't seem to mind us going out now as he has the treat to look forward to. Also our sheltie also stays in our kitchen and breakfast room while we are out/ bedtime so he can't get to the sofas and carapets.

Are you able to secure him in a room where he will be unable to course damage to your belongings and potentionaly to himself?

BTW we also found the crate was very unsettling for him with the door closed, with it open he quite happily takes himself in there, and we usally find all of his favioute toys in there. But close the door and he screams!

The kong toys sound like a very good idea, i'll attempt to perswade my parents to buy some at the weekend.
We have a room that is almost completely stripped of everything now, mostly because she'd destroyed everything that used to be in it. T

he only problem with that is that i can't confine my other dog in there with her, because the puppy is now bigger than her and a lot more bulky and is very clumsy so when she gets upset that we've left she jumps about and i worry she'll hurt my dog.. or that my dog will get a bit agressive with her which she has been known to do.. not overly agressive just barking a some warning snaps, but it scares our puppy half to death, big soppy thing, heh.

Still, i'll attempt variations and hopefully will find something that works, then i might be able to go out and find a job at last, heheh.

Many thanks!

we also use a plastic cup to put treats in, ours loves ice cubes, we 1st gave him one when his teething was really bad. So I just put an ice cube in the cup and shake it, the noise gets him excited and he then has to get it out the cup himself.

Another thing - they were saying at puppy class a good way to break this habit is to get the dog used to being on another side of the door from you and slowly increase the time you spend away from him before his mis behaves that way he learns you always come back.

She's ruling you. She's the boss in her eyes and she's showing destructive behaviour because she doesn't like her alpha role. She's not up to the job. Dogs are pack dogs and they dislike thier pack splitting up. that's why she misbehaves this way. You need to rebalance the pack structure. I've posted a new thread showing how to do this.

I have trouble believeing this i'm afraid.
Firstly shes a puppy, shes 7 months old and at that age doesn't have a set place in the pack.
She is very submissive and the only signs she has shown that are sometimes connected with dominance are things like jumping up, which at her age i'd put more down to excitement.
When we are in the house she is very eager to please and shows submissive behaviour such a flattening her ears when she is called.
She is also rather scared of my other dog, despite her being smaller, and will actually refuse to walk past her and will be very submissive and even have the occasional accident if she has to walk past her. (I'm hopeing this will change as the puppy gets older and clamer.) My other dog is also not at all dominant, just a little grumpy at having this massive puppy constantly wanting to play and knocking her over.

She hates the pack splitting up and is hugely a pack animal, yes, but thinking shes the boss? Not a chance.
My dad is very much the pack leader in my house (although its only the dogs that appreciate how he treats everyone at home the same way he treats his employees at work.)

I will read your post as i do think it will be very interesting and i am not trying to knock that, i just can't see what you are suggesting in my puppy.

I see your point, but its a puppy! - puppys are destructive and chew a lot by nature!

there is a lot to be said about dogs dominant behaviour , and although she may be only 7 months she is from a breed that has strong pack mentality , a dog at any age will try and get the upper hand if they think they can or you let them , A goog book to try and get hold of is Jan Fennel the practicle dog listener she has her own web site to order the books from its a well worth while read very informative about the dogs way of thinking and how he thinks of you as a pack member . As you live in a fa,mily enviroment she needs to be treated the same by all of you when you descide what corse of action to take , strong dogs need strong owners to lead them so they dont feel the need to take the role themselves and they often do without you realising it . Chewing is a natural thing in young dogs but at 7 months it should,nt be because she is teething so its more a learned behaviour that gets attention ,to a dog good or bad attention is what they want from you even if its negative . Look at what you may be feeding her some foods will make a dog hyper a bit like sweets and children . sleeping downstairs is only putting you at her level and so getting her used to a crate if she cant be trusted is a good idea , but like most things with dogs its about perserverance ,giving in to her displays of behaviour while she is in the crate and letting her out gives her the idea that if she does this she will get let out so gentle persuasion with treats or feed her in the crate so she associates it with something good , a step at a time , but dont poo poo the idea that it could be dominance . we dont live in your house and can only give a general idea of what could be the solution . lots of people on here own strong minded dogs so maybe you will get lots more ideas of how to manage her not everything that suits one dog will suit another but its worth giving sudgestions a go .

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