Eating everything in sight

[Heather, Rocky & Quinn]

8 month old Quinn is into EVERYTHING. He pulled the butane lighter off the fireplace mantel piece but I saw it right away. Has been to the emergency for eating diet gum. He is so tall there are no surfaces that are safe from him. I have to hide my 4 year old sons mutilated toys. If it hits the ground it is in Quinns mouth in nano seconds. Is there anything other than raw hide chews I can entice Quinn into chewing? I've bought all the rubber chew toys. He sees no joy in them. Help.

[Christine & Camus]

At 8 months I think exercise is a big part, especially if he is a high energy dog.  The weather is mild here and Camus is not what I would call a high energy boy, but I take him out to run almost every night even when it is raining.

In addition to exercise and training have you tried antlers and marrow bones? 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Is he food motivated? The treat balls that they have to roll around to get treats or kibble out of are pretty fun for them indoors. I use some of their kibble and my two just chase each other around with it. Actually, Bella moves the cube and Murphy picks up as much kibble as he can find. But it takes a good while to get it out. Do you use a crate? And antlers are a great option.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Sue's suggestion is a great one.  My dogs all love rolling the treat balls around.  I also put their kibble in rather than treats.  Antlers, heavy chewer Nylabones, Kongs....  It certainly makes for a clean house doesn't it?

[Lynda Kamrath]

And remember, he is young.  Young doodles need lots of exercise.  They are high energy dogs.  We live in a nice climate, but our dogs really want to get out of the house every day.  Since both my husband and I are retired, we are usually around a lot of the time, but whenever we go out, we always take the dogs with us.  Even a ride in the car while you are shopping gets them out of the house a little.  Chewing?  Our ALD chewed everything (even the decks) when he was young and we learned to put everything up out of his range or behind closed doors.  Anytime he picked up anything, we took it away and threw him a toy.  He still has toys and never tears them up like he did when he was younger.  We still are in the habit of leaving our shoes on the window ledge in the bathroom, even though he does not touch a shoe anymore.  Both my dogs like bully sticks, but they smell so I give them to them outside.  They get 20 minutes (I put it on the kitchen timer) on the bully sticks and then I put them away (in a zip lock bag) until the next day.  Usually a bully stick lasts about an hour, so that is three times on a stick.  Rubber chews?  My dogs never liked them either.  Antlers are fine and I sometimes get the big ham hocks (smoked) at the grocery store.  They love them also but they are messy and also have to be eaten outside.

[Robin Hoyt]

My dog Dakota 2yrs. old, female, still eats whatever....last week stole a neighbors ankle sock out of their garage and ate it...400. later...puked it out at the vet...

it could be a dust ball, leave, paper, lizard..

been thru 2 training courses, and goes to the dog park to exercise, just about every day. They say 4 yrs. is the magic number  ! I hope so... :)

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You're very lucky that she brought the sock up. Some dogs here have ended up having to have $3000 surgeries to remove a sock.

[Lynda Kamrath]

Oh, one other thing.  My dogs love to clean up the sidewalk and trails when we are walking.  And I mean they EAT everything in sight.  I tried putting muzzles on them, but they hated the muzzles and would drag them off as soon as they had a chance.  So...what about the poop on the trails?  I know that there must be all kinds of worms out there and whatever else is passed in the feces, so I make sure they have worm medications on a regular basis.  Heartworm, round worm, tape worm, etc.  They actually make my older doodle drool, but that is better than keeping him on leash and yelling at him all the time.  And they DO love being out in nature and off leash.  Something else to think about.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

When I first saw the heading I thought this post was about me :-p

seriously though, you've gotten some good advice here. I know this age is hard and it sounds like you have a lot on your plate. I hope you can find the time to give him the exercise and training he needs. If you need a good chew you should try antlers. I think there's an online s tore called antler pantry, I got a bunch from there a year ago and they are still going strong. Good luck!

[cheryl brownell]

HI, My doodle is almost 2 now but he grew so fast it seemed like his rear was always higher the the front. At 8 months I didn't think he would grow any more and then at 10 months he took off again.  He's bigger than his parents and now around 80 to 85 pounds. It's much better now with  a lot of obedience training, but the first year was tuffer than my sons terrible twos.