Gracie's Eating Pillows Again

:yikes:

Okay.. Just as a refresher, the 2 weeks between us getting ready to move and being moved in, Gracie developed an appetite for bed pillows. She wasn't actually eating them so much as she was pulling the stuffing out thru a small hole she would chew in the corners.

Fast forward to the here and now:

The behavior stopped once she got settled into the new house and made it her home, but... this morning we found one of our bed pillows where she'd pulled it to the middle of the bed and began chewing on it.

Let me make this next part very clear... we do not in any way beat our dog. She gets a firm "NO, Grace!" and an occasional bump to the tummy when she jumps up on people, but she is never yelled at or abused in any way.

When my husband found the pillow, she was right behind him, and she turned and ran to me, cowering under my computer desk keeping me between him and her. Like she had been beaten, and I know for a fact that my husband would never beat her. She's more of a baby to him than she is to me even.

I can only assume that in the 6 months of her life before we became her family, that she was abused and this is some time of conditioned behavior. We can handle that, and deal with it.. but WHY is she eating pillows again?

There's no discord in our home.. we have no kids, so Bailey and Grace are in effect, our children.. and they are treated like royalty..

Any ideas?:yikes: :yikes: :yikes:

Supervise, supervise, supervise.

Allow her zero access to the area where the pillows are without you directly being there.

Regarding the pillows: What Red said--no unsupervised access to the pillows. Puppy proof the house!

As far as the dog running and hiding:

We got our puppy at 8 weeks so we know he was never abused. However, around 5 months he went through a big phase where anytime he did something "wrong" and I caught him (I would say No!), he would run and hide behind my girlfriend.

This persisted for a while and was amazingly frustrating for me. If we came home and found things destroyed in the house, we would ignore him for 20 minutes while we cleaned up. After that when we said hi to him, he would ignore me and only stay near her. We gave him the same treatment for the same crime, but he looked at me as the aggressor.

We both know that I'm the enforcer and she is the comforter. We're fine with that, for the most part. But it was nerve wracking for me because I love this dog so much and he seemed like he didn't care about me at all. He would just run and hide behind her and then stay right by her side.

Now, at 7 months, it has mostly passed. We don't know if its an age thing or if it is because of our actions, but there is a noticeable difference. For example, he is sleeping at my feet right now under my desk--he used to only ever do this at my girlfriend's feet under her desk in a different room. When she would get up and leave a room, he would follow her. Now he stays and plays with me joyfully.

Here are my tips:
1-You do as much of the reprimanding as you can. Even if it costs you a pillow, your husband should look to you to take more a roll as the enforcer.

2-If your husband is training, he needs to use the sweetest voice possible. I'm a big cheerleader, but I was unconsciously giving my dog strong commands during training sessions instead of jumping up and down and working with him.

3-Your husband should find a game or activity that only he does with her. For us, it is agility. I'm the one that teaches him jumps, etc. and guides him. She does it occasionally, but it is mostly me. He loves it.

4-Your husband should give her small treats for basic behaviors (sit, down, etc.) sporadically throughout the day.

5-The meals come from your husband whenever possible. She waits and he puts the bowl down, making it clear that he is giving her the food.

6-At least once a day (I do this late at night), your husband takes her for a walk by himself. Just a quick walk, maybe to let her go to the bathroom before you go to bed. It gives them a chance to bond and for her to gain his trust.

Most of all--your husband has to be predictable! She sees him as a liability and is unsure of herself around him. He needs to prove to her that he is a loving caretaker that would never harm her.

Red, you posted the same thing when she initially started eating the pillows, and we have done just that.

We won't keep her and Bailey from being able to go to their food and water bowls (which are by the bedroom in the laundry room)...

Otherwise, they are always in the same room with us. We keep the bedroom door pulled shut, but not latched... so I am assuming either one of us forgot to pull it shut or she has figure out how to nose it open.

Eitherway.. the supervision does definitely help, but I also know you cannot keep them shut in one room all the time... they'd be bouncing off of each other and us..hehe


We both baby her, do lots of agility training with her... walk her daily (that's hers and Bailey's treat for being good kids during the day when we are at work)... and my husband babies her at night, usually for 20 minutes when we go to bed each night, she lays right beside of him and he rubs her belly and talks to her. If they miss this nightly ritual, we don't sleep until it is done because she whines.

When I just read your first posting about the pillows, I smiled. I too have an occasional pillow "destuffer". Not bed pillows, but sofa pillows. We are down to one pillow......an older one......not as plush to sink teeth into. He gets a little opening, and then just pulls out the stuff when we are not home. He started the destuffing with his plush toys. He LOVES to work on them until he desqueaks the squeaker, and pulls the stuff out. So........we decided no more plush toys, because we would have had to buy one every week. We stopped the plush toys also because we were afraid to have him eating the stuffing/squeaker while we were not home. That is when he decided to work on the living room pillows. One day my husband came home from work, and he had only a little corner of the pillow opened, but had spread the (actually small amount of) stuffing from one end of the room to the other! We looked for something more sturdy, and found "Tuffie's" Pet toys. They are kind of soft, and stiched on the seams seven times. The seams were what he worked on to get his little corner hole to destuff. He can't get through this one so easy. We have had this same toy for a month and a half, and it is still in one piece, and he loves it. We got the round one with the hole in the middle. It is fun to throw. I also realized that he isn't into totally destroying, but enjoying pulling the stuffing out. It is fun! I just found another toy that is called the "I Qube" It isn't something that he can have all the time, but it satisfies his desire to pull things out of something. It is a plush square, that has openings on four sides. There are four plush balls with squeakers inside. He is learning to pull them out, and we again put them back in. He likes the game! They also have one that has little birds in a tree trunk, bees in a nest etc. I got the I Qube because I know he would chew the wings off the birds in no time. We keep that toy put away until we are there to play with him. He loves it! When he did our sofa pillows, we put a bigger crate up to put him in while we were away. He hasn't had to be crated because he hasn't done any more pillows. I noticed when we got busy, and he didn't get the attention, he left us a little reminder, even if it was rolling up our area rug. We decided, that now that we need more pillows, we will not let them where he can get them. It is just toooooo tempting. He also likes to chew on our soft blanket we use on the sofa, and while we are using it. He is into "soft" He likes corners of soft bath towels too, also while in use. He wants to play! I must admit, when I was a kid, I found a little opening in my feather pillow, and when I was bored, I layed in bed, and pulled feathers out of the little corner and hid them! Good luck!! Maybe in the moving process and change to your dogs environment, Gracie either responded to the change, felt the stress, didn't feel she got quite as much attention in the preparing and moving process, or just the changes to their abode.....who knows for sure! Just guessing!