My dog is starting to become a rebel I think!!!!!

Here goes,

When I left the house the other day, Sky went into the kitchen and took the one thing I forgot to remove a dinner tray from the shelf. Due to being at a BBQ and checking SKY on the CCTV I noticed white powder everywhere I rushed home thinking she had destroyed the Sofa. Luckily she had ripped the bottom off the tray, resulting in thousands of white foam balls everywhere. In addition to this she had taken a chunk out of my blinds

I'm a little confused when I leave Sky I usually put her in the crate, and she doesn't cry or grumble and just sits down licks her paws, and more often than not goes to sleep! At night she sleeps at the bottom of my bed, and is perfect, never chews anything just sleeps until I wake her up. She has never left the bedroom to chew anything, and has more than enough opportunity to do so!

She follows me round the house and occasionally picks up socks, hats that she shouldn't have I say no and thats it! She is just generally well behaved, however When I seem to give her the run of downstairs she goes on a mission to destroy stuff! I'm a little confused why! She is 6 months old, and doesn't chew much of anything except her toys!

Is it too early to be leaving her alone in parts of the house yet, or is there an underlying issue?

She lives on her own with me, and when Im at work she spends the time at my parents. When I am home, she tends to follow me around, and more often than not if she nods off, she soon finds me and goes sleep near me. I'm just curious if this is something to do with separation anxiety all this, or is she just plain and simply to young!?

My old dog Gemma (Bull Mastiff) took about two years to stop destroying things lol! I kept her confined to the kitchen when I was out, with plenty of toys & Kong type toys with treats inside.

I think it can vary from dog to dog... If she's used to being around you, she could just be playing up or bored. She's still quiet young tho, and probably teething too I should imagine.

Have you any Kong type toys you could leave her with?

I have a Kong ball, with adjustable open slot for treats but she ends up closing it. I do have a red kong, but i find she seems to eat it all within ten minutes. She just throws it around until they all fall out lol.

Yeah she is really young, maybe I should leave her in the crate for a little while longer.

brophski wrote:I have a Kong ball, with adjustable open slot for treats but she ends up closing it. I do have a red kong, but i find she seems to eat it all within ten minutes. She just throws it around until they all fall out lol.

Yeah she is really young, maybe I should leave her in the crate for a little while longer.

I don't think it would do any harm . Some dogs like their crate (feel safe). I didn't crate train Gemma, but I am with Nitro as I read up before hand- learnt that Staff's just love to chew! Lol. He loves his crate... I'm in no hurry to remove it from him.

One of my friends has a Jack Russell cross, she used it for about 14 months. Seemed a perfect age to take it away . It's worked well for them both.

Six months old. She's entered the teenage phase. Plus, you can see why she acts that way when she's alone: she's told no when she goes to get something she's not allowed. But when you're not there, no-one's there to tell her 'no.' A trainer told me that certain things, like 'off' and 'leave it' should be taught without commands, so that the dog chooses (with our persuasion) to not chew things they're not meant to, rather than us simply telling them, otherwise they'll know they can do it when we're not around.

Anyway, regardless, your answer is that she's entering a phase where she's a bit of a rebel, and she's being mischievous. Very normal, even the ones that act good as gold will give into temptation when on their own

I have to agree with Tara its the teenage phase!!!! Katy is going through it at the moment. I can actually be playing with her, she will lave the room & come back past the door with a boot or slipper. Yesterday she was playing with OH whilst I was washing up, she left him picked up a shoe & brought it into the kitchen just to show me she'd got it then run off to hide >

Ooooh, yes, teenager!

KNows everything, listens to nothing & nobody understands her!

I'd go back to using the crate for a little while longer & make sure you're firm with commands & unwanted behaviour. She'll get there!!

Teenage phase for sure - Vinny's just started too and at 6 months he's not long finished teething - so there's a whole new strong jaw and adult teeth to explore all sorts of textures and objects with. The advice above is great, keep with the training!