Chewing blinds

[cocoincanada]

Diesel is about 7 months now. We rescued him when he was about 5 months. So far, he has settled in nicely and he gets along beautifully with our almost 4 yr old Goldendoodle, Sunny. We love him!

 

Sunny is no longer in a crate, so we were hoping we could leave Diesel out of the crate as well. We started by gating them off in smaller areas (kitchen/dining room). In the past 2 months, Diesel has shredded one of our dining room curtains, and also chewed 3 of our faux wood blinds (the kind from Home Depot). They are not cheap to replace, and average about $60 - $120 per blind, depending on the size of the window. We've also discovered that Diesel is a major counter-surfer, a problem we never had with Sunny. Last week, we came home and Diesel had grabbed the mini stainless steel compost bin from way up high/in the back on the countertop (he is so tall), somehow opened it, and ate its entire contents. Of course, Sunny couldn't let him do that on his own....so he ate some too. That night, we went out and bought the biggest wire kennel we could find, and we've been kenneling Diesel in the daytime since then. It's going well, but it seems...he still has a thing for blinds. Last night, while my hubby was out cutting the grass (15 mins max), Diesel chewed yet another faux-wood blind.

 

How can I keep him away from these? I have cranked them all really high up (in the meantime, my neighbours can see everything that's going on in my house) so he can't reach them, but clearly, that's not even enough. I can't gate him off from every window in the house. I guess we can start kenneling him every single time we leave the house, even if it's just for 5 mins, but at some point, I will want to start letting him out every now and then, and I don't want him to go back to his old ways.

 

How can I teach him a lesson? I have not been able to catch him in the act, and even if I did, he doesn't seem to care when you scold him. Sunny is way more sensitive, so the minute you look at him sideways, he sulks. Diesel, not so much. You can scold him or cuddle him...it's all the same to him. He's very stubborn.

 

Any suggestions for how I can teach him to stop getting up into the windows and potentially chewing the blinds?

[Jaime and Barley Barker]

It sounds like your puppy is going through puppy adolescence. Barley was a great puppy until he became six months old. Then he became super destructive. Is there anyway you can block off the rooms that have the yummy blinds? My only other recommendation is to crate him each time you go out. I'm sure he'll grow out of it. Barley was obnoxious, but it was a quick phase. Also, is he teething? I think puppies might still be teething at that age. Are there plenty of hard things for him to chew on, such as antlers or frozen washcloths?

[Jayd (Dempsey)]

I agree with Jaime.  Unfortunately, you have to crate him when you are unable to keep your eye on him.  I have a 5 almost 6 month old doodle too (major counter surfer).  He'll grow out of it and in the mean time I would get bitter apple and spray your blinds.  It may deter him in the short term.  (you do have to reapply as it evaporates).  Good luck! 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This can be a real tough age for a puppy.  I did have to crate Murphy when I wasn't able to watch him during the challenging "teen age" phase.  The good news is it didn't last too long with my Dood, and for many months he has not destroyed anything and we have been able to put the crate away.

[Carol Brand]

He is not ready to be out of a crate unsupervised plain and simple.   You can mitigate the chewing with Bitter Apple but my sense is that he will move on to something else and you simply can't spray everything.

 

For counter surfing, I'm a big believer in mouse traps.