Chewing (2 Years old!)

Hi all, I'm newish to the forum, and thought I'd solved my problem but apparently not...

Ok, so I have a 2 year old Australian shepherd. He just turned 2. He's a pretty laid back Aussie- not one of those crazy hyper ones you hear about a lot. Ever since he was young he's been a bit of a chewer, i had presumed he'd grow out of it. He used to destroy his beds, thankfully, this stopped. Then he destroyed the thick plastic pipes of our sprinkler system.
He used to be an indoor/outdoor dog, we moved house about 3 months ago and they (we have his 8 year old uncle as well) settled in quite well, although became predominantly outdoor dogs, with indoor periods when it was dark before going back out to sleep. (I live with my Mum, this is her plan.)
Anyway, not long after we got here, he began to chew up the /new/ sprinkler pipes. These got pulled up, so he wouldn't be able to. There's not much else in the backyard to destroy, except for the plants and his beds, and he didn't take to them, until Mum put about... 8 potted orchids out there. In thick plastic pots.
Now we wake up to two or three of them having been dragged to the middle of the lawn and tipped over. One of them has a fair amount of chew-damage on it, but the other appear to just have been dragged. I originally thought he was doing this because, for a week, he hadn't been getting any excersize as he was sick with kennel cough, and once excersize started again the destruction didn't happen for a few days...
However, I took him out- I was on my push-bike, he was running beside, for a /very/ decent run yesterday. He was buggered when we got home, but this morning I awoke to three orchids overturned. The amount of running he did yesterday should have worn him out enough to let him sleep though, unless it was done early this morning when I was still asleep and Mum had woken up and gone out.... now that could be a possibility...
Anyway, I've sprayed the pots with that chew deterant stuff.. Just wondering if anyone else has any suggestions/possibly causes (other than boredom.. he /does/ have toys, and his uncle out there, and as I said, he should have been worn out..) and other than removing the orchids completely, because there's really not anywhere else to put them... they've been with us for about 15 years now so it'd suck to have them all die off now.

I do like the thought of him having done it in the period between Mum leaving and me waking up, though... hmmmmm.. I'll have to watch that. And ask her if they were down when she woke up.
Thanks very much.

I would say you need to do several things....

Keep up the exercise, but make sure he does not have any hip or elbow problems. This will necessitate exray films.

MENTALLY CHALLENGE this dog. He needs training, work to do. Obedience, Agility, Flyball, Herding, Frisbee competition....Find SOMETHING or several things to challenge his mind, and keep him busy learning.

ENRICH HIS ENVIRONMENT...get him boomer balls, make a suspended tug for him (huge rope tied overhead, with a big knot on the end, at just head height, for grabbing, swinging, tugging....)...Make him a digging pit, make a sand box, and bury delicious and interesting things in it, and keep him well supplied with interesting things to play with.

And finally, consult with your mom about allowing him to sleep at your bedside, crated, during the night.



good luck, these high energy dogs like Aussies can be challenging, but the rewards when you get them channelled in the right direction can be marvelous.

I agree. Physically running him may be good (make sure he's in the condition for it and you aren't over working his joints) but it doesn't work his mind. He needs to play while exercising and he should have things like kongs, puzzle toys and bones to keep him busy in the yard.

Just to add to the great advise you have already been given
My Rottweiler if given the opportunity would chew every thing up and she is 6 years old. They don't magically grow out of chewing. Chewing for some dogs is a wonderful passtime.

With my Rottie, even with 3 good hikes a day, tons of mental stimulation, games of fetch, play in the compound with my other 4 dogs...she still loves to chew. When she is out in the kennel (only on a nice day) I give her a raw bone to chew. I am fortunate that all my dogs can chew bones together with no issues...if not, then it's best to seperate them. Even in my SUV I give her something to chew on.

Next, if a dog is left unsupervised for long periods of time, make sure they have proper kennels and runs...housing is very important as well. Although I personally think it's cruel to have outdoor only dogs...if you do go that route then make sure they have proper kennels. With proper kennels they cannot chew on inappropriate items. You can give them bones to occupy their time, sometimes toys are not enough. My Rottie would go for a blanket before she would ever go for a kong bone

There are many things you can give your chewer, raw bones (first few times supervise in case he is an aggressive chewer), raw turkey necks are great, sometimes I pick up prepared bones from the Pet Store, you could put kibbles in a kong and cover the opening with cream cheese.

Good luck

One last thing, if you put your dog out with raw bones, be sure to pick them up and throw out the next day. Some dogs will bury them, but, if they do happen to get left in a corner of the dog house etc. Then they will get maggoty...be very careful and keep track of the bones you give them. Some bones can be dangerous for really aggressive chewers.

Hehe, ok, now to reply to these one by one:

To RedyreRottweilers; he's an agility dog. We actively compete in agaility throughout the season. He's got 3/5 passes in open already. However, it's summer and all the clubs are on their breaks. I tried to train him the other day just over a few jumps but he's slowed right down, possibly because he wasn't faced with an entire course, and I don't want him to get it into his head that going slow is ok, so I'm hesitant to do any actual obsticle training until the season starts again. Obedience would work, though.. hmm
But there's no chance that he'll ever, ever be allowed to sleep in my room. Although this would eliminate the whole problem, it's never going to happen. This is a new house that we bought 3 months ago.. so.. yeah. They used to sleep crated indoors... until there was an unfortunate couple of nights involving dirrhea, on the behalf of both dogs... so now they're not allowed to sleep inside, either, alhtough that too would solve the problem.

To the suggestion about bones: This could work, because they're not aggressive together... however our other one would just bury his, and if this is a problem happening in the morning then he's going to be done with the bone in a few hours anyway.. But I guess that'll make him sleep longer or whatever..

The dogs have their 2 kennels, but not like... caged in runs or anything. That would be impossible here. The backyard is quite small now, and as I said, it's a new house, Mum isn't going to put runs out there and ruin the look of the thing.

Maybe I'll get some bones. Or figure something out, anyway.