Is this mean???

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

I put Cocoa in her create with out any bedding.   She has torn up 4 beds to far.  The last 2 were old bed spreads I cut and sewed to make a bed, but she ripped a hole in it and was eating the stuffing.  I am scared she is going to choke or get it stuck and need surgery so I no longer give her a bed.  But part of me feels bad for her to have to lay on the hard cold cage floor.  She can not have many toys as well she eats them even the tuff toys so all she has is hard bones and an antler and the antler is even getting chewed up.  Not to mention the hole in my couch, teeth marks on my wall and my poor blankie DH left out when I was gone.

I know we have lots of chewers here so curious as to what you all have to do.

[Elizabeth & Cosmo]

Cosmo is not much of a chewer ordinarily, but he did chew a hole in the bed we bought him. He didn't seem to swallow any of the stuffing, but I was worried about that possibility so we didn't replace it.

When he was a puppy, he had pulled an old cotton thermal blanket out of our laundry basket and started sleeping on it. After the bed incident, we decided to just go with his choice--and he still sleeps on the old blanket!

Cosmo has never been crated, just confined behind a baby gate. But when he is boarded (even though the kennel/room is pretty large), he gets bored and chews.

I don't know if any of this is helpful with Cocoa, but I would say don't feel guilty about not giving her a bed! She has enough fur to keep her warm and comfy!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Peri doesn't use her crate much anymore, but we stopped using pads in it from about day 1. She is a huge chewer and it just wasn't worth it.  She didn't mind the harder floor - honestly, she likes lying down on our hardwoods since they are cool anyway!  I would not worry.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think when she is older she may be able to have a bed but for now having the crate bare is fine. This toy:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Dog-Large-Orbee-Tuff-Green/dp/B000FPBN...

and this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006JT42LY/ref=s9_simh_gw_p199_d0_...

both of which you can get trough the DK link have proven indestructible for my dogs.

[Karen and Bridget]

No, it's not mean.  You are looking out for her safety and she has proven repeatedly that she is not capable of chewing restraint at this point.  That doesn't mean that sometime in the future she won't love having a bed, just that she's not ready for it right now.   Most of the time our lab prefers the hard wood over his comfy bed.

[Leslie J]

My Cocoa was a chewer extraordinaire! Her specialties included dry wall and loop carpets (they were no longer carpets when she was done- but I had plenty of yarn if I wanted to start a knitting project).  I had to keep her crated when I couldn't watch her to protect her from ingesting something dangerous (which she has done twice in her three years of life).  I don't think you're mean to take out the pad- you may be saving her life.  In the summer she might prefer the cool hard floor anyway- Cocoa sleeps on our hardwood floors instead of the carpet this time of year to cool off.

Oh, the good news- she outgrew the chewing thing long ago and no longer needs her crate!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There are inexpensive pads you can buy for the bottom of a crate that make it a bit more comfy but don't have stuffing. You can usually find them in most pet supply stores. I've found the tight pile "sherpa" type materials work best, are fairly indestructible, and wash well.

I know rawhide is controversial, but if this was my dog, I'd buy the biggest braided made-in-the-USA rawhide I could find, the size you would ordinarily get for a Saint Bernard. That or a the largest sized Nylabone Dura Chew bone for powerful chewers. She clearly has a very strong need to chew. Could she be teething?

[Adina P]

Boca would chew anything left in her crate that could be chewed.  She's pulled things from outside of her crate that she could reach and chewed them up.  Obviously I make sure anything is several inches away now, but yeah...she just gets bored and likes the fun of tearing things up.

[Lindsey & Cocoa]

I think she would just eat the pad, She chewed a huge hole in my blanket I snuggle on the couch to watch tv with and it has no stuffing.      When she was younger I did buy a huge raw hide and with in hours she was getting huge bits off and eating them so I thought that was really bad for her to eat and never gave her another.   I want to try bully sticks but they are so expensive and I think she will eat it all with in minutes.  Not to expensive to buy just that fact that she would eat to to fast.

She is 9 mo old tomorrow so not sure if she is getting in anymore teeth or not.

The other day she stole the poor baby's monkey out of his car seat and before I could get it back she had torn its ear off and ate it.

I even bought one of those Kong food/treat dispencers and she knocks it around gets all the food out and then eats the kong and then I am left with dog food all over my carpet.

She is lucky she is cute and we love her...lol ;)

[Adina P]

Rosco peed on crate bedding, Boca chews up bedding if she's alone with it, and both of my dogs tend to choose the hard wood floors when they lay around the house...so I don't use crate bedding.  Not 'mean' at all.

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

Not mean.  Mine like the cold ceramic tiles until it gets to be winter.  I took the cushy bed out of the crate, even though they weren't chewers.

[Sue and Buddy]

Not mean at all. Buddy prefers to have the bare floor to any cushion. He gets hot and likes the coolness of the bare floor.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Lindsey, When I was crating my dogs, they both preferred the cold floor to having a blanket in there with them. They got too hot. Not mean at all :)