Reply To: Destroying the house

[Kim James]

Hi Jessica 🙂
It sounds like your providing the dog with a reasonable physical outlet in the form of walking which is awesome!!! you could absolutely vary the physical outlet to engage her drive tendencies in the form of hunt and retrieve games which could offer another level of engagement and relationship and allow for early implementation of premack principle.

But for now….heres the kicker 🙂

From a health perspective she is at the moment discovering that her primary incisors are being replaced by permanent incisors. Obviously during the teething process dogs can get irritable and potentially to us irrational, they may drool and seek comfort by chewing (destroying) things with their mouth.

“University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, says the incisors start to come in at around 2-5 months of age, then the canine teeth at 4-6 months, the premolars at 4-7 months and finally the molars (which only come in as part of the permanent set) at 5-7 months. By the time a dog is 7 or 8 months old, he should have all of his permanent teeth.”

Unsupervised free time for an teething dog in an area of importance such as the sitting room is ill advised, this would certainly be inviting temptation from any irritable dog with minimum impulse control or boundary’s.

Genetically Vislas have a very strong social pack drive, all these associated drives can absolutely be exacerbated via heath related issues and irritabilities.

I would say that you do your part to lessen the tempting chewing opportunities at home.
Keep your floor clear and make sure that items of importance are set aside in the bedroom or closet.
Move things set in your pup’s eye level to higher ground.
As much as practicable, provide them with an area that is safe enough for them be alone and engage in with a chew toy when you need to leave the house for a long period of time.

Awesome job on starting the PH1 obedience with her, try and be cognisant that as they grow into their skin there will be times your standing there scratching your head thinking what the hell did I just see!!!! moments of brilliance and moments of loopyness LOL 🙂 Enjoy the process, be patient and Kind.

All the very best 🙂