Has Anyone Found Going Back to Basics Success

[DogPaddle]

For those of you who have had relapses in house training (not elimination just chewing and getting into things) and who have gone back to the basics:
How did it go?
Did you go right back to crating?
Did you, eventually, regain all the lost ground?

Kavik or more likely Zaphod or perhaps both of them as a tag team have started decimating the kitchen while I'm out. They have been so good for so long I am perplexed but it may be the move I guess.

Anyway Zaphod was to the point where anything at the back of the kitchen counter was a real no-no (but things at the front were obviously invitations :lol: ) and the garbage can with the closing lid was working fine. Lately they have dumped the garbage and scavanged, eaten an entire plate of cookies from the back of the counter, taken a loaf of bread off the table (never did that before) and taken to removing whole rolls of tp out of the main floor bathroom and playing with them and eating them (toilet paper has been fairly safe for quite a while too before now.)
Gah! I may have to buy another crate as one of there old ones is too small now.

[ESSlover]

Ohh, I know the feeling. How many sandwiches, loafs of bread, banana bread, bags of hotdog/hamburger buns, cookies, etc Carson has eaten. Grr.. puppies.. :lol: So suggestions, just sympathy. :lol:

[DogPaddle]

I would be less confused by it if they were puppies but Kavik will be 4 this December (gosh it is unreal that we've already had 4 years together) and Zaphod turned 3 this past October. Hardly puppies and almost completely out of their teens so to speak. :roll: Oh well, I'm sure it can be corrected I just wondered if someone who had to go back to basics had a timeline or storey.

[ESSlover]

Well, Carse is two.. but springers are puppies till they're about 9. :lol:

[DogPaddle]

:lol:

I dog sat a 9 year old springer and I BELIEVE you. He was actaully extememly well mannered and behaved but a bundle of energy and play.

[Horsefeathers!]

[quote name='DogPaddle']For those of you who have had relapses in house training (not elimination just chewing and getting into things) and who have gone back to the basics:
How did it go?
Did you go right back to crating?
Did you, eventually, regain all the lost ground?

[/quote]

I must have missed this initially. Not that I can be much help. :oops:

We have housetraining relapses allllllllllll the time (like you, not meaning pottying... just house manners). :roll:
The dogs that have free reign of my house 24/7 are Perry (Standard Poodle), Tucker (Lab), PJ (Toy Poodle foster) and then sometimes Pauly (other Standard Poodle). My Standards do take spells of stupidity :roll: . They don't have potty accidents, but they occasionally get a destructive streak. The thing is, it's like it becomes a compulsion. It may start with nibbling on the bedspread, for example. Then it turns into EATING it (that was Perry... part of my bedspread is gone). It just seems to develop into a compulsion.

Some of the stuff I do is giving them things to work on that are legal, but they don't know they're legal. For example, I'll leave old magazines out. While I'd like to be an all or nothing idealist and say that dogs should never, ever be allowed to destroy anything, I'm not always home to be the enforcer. I'd much rather walk into a mess of shredded paper than, say, a shredded couch. I also leave stuffed toys around, but I don't give them right to the dogs. Oh, they have their own toys that I do indeed offer, but I'll leave something "taboo" (and really cheap like dollar store stuffed toys) there, too. Again, it's just the lesser of the evils... coming home to destroyed home vs. coming home to destroyed cheap stuff. Either way, I have a mess to clean, but it doesn't take too long to clean up some shredded paper or toy guts. Very often, the "toy" that I offer is just some scrap fabric sewn together with a bit of batting inside... costs next to nothing for me to make (and I often re-use the stuffing :oops: ), and they are for the sole purpose of being destroyed.

Sometimes we have to remove the diversion (or rather the dog). For example, Perry became so fixated on my bedspread (it's now ruined, with a huge part of it gone) that we now shut him out of the bedroom during the day when no one is home. We'll eventually leave it open again, but it's like having to break a bad habit. He'll eventually forget about it and order is restored. It also makes me very glad I went for the el cheapo bedspread over the pricey one I'd been eyeballing (common sense prevailed). :o

I'm just rambling, but basically my suggestions are to perhaps try leaving some kind of temptation that you really don't mind being destroyed. Something "taboo" that they aren't given (along with "real" toys that ARE offered)... magazines, cheap stuffies, oh! old toilet paper rolls are wonderful, too! It gives them a chance to "work" (read be devious) and may save the house (and your sanity). Also, it sounds like it's time to move the trash can where the dogs have zero access to it (a pantry or closet maybe?), and close the bathroom doors. I can't tell you the last time we've had open bathroom doors in our house, and you'd just about need a safe cracker to get into our trash can. I'd remove these temptations outright and give them things they CAN have (even if they are destroyed).

Of the handful that are left loose in my house 24/7, some are 100% reliable and would never bother a thing (Tucker the Lab and PJ the dream foster Poodle), and then some have bouts of destructiveness (ahem Perry and Pauly who are both six years old, by the way... certainly no puppies).

[DogPaddle]

Excellent as usual HF.

Bathroom doors - have to train new borders but they are great so it shouldn't be a problem.
Garbage can - I was hoping to get a different one with a better lid but putting it up/away might be better.
Diversions - They already have stuffed dollar store toys that they gut and I sew up and reuse stuffing too. :lol: But I never leave them with them when I'm not home because my boys gut and CONSUME once in a while. However the tp rolls would be alright, they love those. :roll:

[quote]The thing is, it's like it becomes a compulsion. It may start with nibbling on the bedspread, for example. Then it turns into EATING it[/quote]
That seems to be the case here, it started with a little foray into the trash that had been left with the lid up and moved to full scale raiding. :roll:
They are probably bored, I will have to do something about that.

[Horsefeathers!]

DP, a lot of people swear by leaving loaded Kongs and hard toys such as those and Nylabones out for dogs. Mine just aren't really interested in them other than interactive play (throw/chase). Also, Perry can actually whittle even a large Kong into smaller pieces and he eats those. I don't want him eating Kongs when I'm not home, so I don't load them up and make them "edible." Still, others swear that it's great for keeping bored dogs busy.

Anyway, that's why I give mine things like tp rolls and old magazines to shred. It gives them something to do, but aren't necessarily choking hazards when I'm not home.

[ESSlover]

*takes down notes* :lol:

Carse is such a retard. If we leave out stuffies and what not, he'll chew em up, but only if we're not there, mind you. But if we are there, he tries to find ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he can to chew on, run around with, etc to get our attention. Of course it works, mother doesnt want her $70 shoes to be chewed up. So now he'll always go chew on stuff that he knows will get us up.. grr.. stupid smart clever stubborn doggie.

Suggestions please! :lol:

*hijacks thread* :P :P :lol: