I know I posted this in an entry too, but thought I would get more help here....



About Roxy... Ok I get why she poops in the house when I leave - even if I have just walked her - she pissed I am leaving her alone and not taking her with me....

BUT today out of the blue she started to chew off the wrapping paper from the pressies! Some of them have been wrapped for weeks and on my closet floor and she's left them alone - until today.. Doesnt hurt the pressies, not a tooth mark on them.. Just tears off the paper... Do they make a "yuck" spray for dogs like they do cats? And why on earth would she be suddenly doing this? _although just talked with a friend who has dogs - she thinks that Rox is smelling whats wrapped and its either bothering her or she thinks its something to eat... (it IS candles and perfume etc)

b) her nails. I SO badly need to cut them - their L O N G... But she's deathly afraid of both the pedipaw and the clippers. Even Kev, Tim and Joey (whos an amatuer MMA fighter) cant pin her down when we try. And its the ONLY time she will show her teeth in a snarl to us and try to bite. I know the vet can sedate her to do it but he wants $140 to do it! And in all honesty I cannot afford that right now when I am about to shell out close to $300 for her shots and to have her fixed

(for those who don't read me.. Roxy is a 75 pound 16 month pittbull who is normally the best behaved, calmest dog you will ever meet)

With a big dog like that, it's really hard to clip nails.. especially with clippers. I'd never clip my dogs nails, and they're tiny, but thats only because they have black nails and I'm scared I'd go too far. I would ask the vet to clip her nails while she's under for getting fixed. There should be a small extra charge for that, but not the $140 as you wouldn't be putting her under anesthesia for just that purpose. While thats just a simple fix for now, after that I'd start walking her on gravel/concrete to keep them shorter. I have 2 dogs, one goes outside all day most days, the other stays inside all day most days.. the one thats inside all the time has to have his nails trimmed every other month whereas the one thats outside most days only has his about every 6 months. And maybe try to start gently warming Roxy up to the pedipaw. At first just bringing it near her, then turning it on, then touching it to her, etc. It might take a while, but she might eventually warm up to it.

As far as the presents go, I think thats just a deal with boredom that happens to most dogs. They do make sprays that dogs aren't fond of, but it just depends on how much the dog wants something to if they'll stay away from it :P.

I read somewhere that just getting them familiar with you touching their paws helps a great deal.

Just like touching them while watching TV or something, so they don't think the worst when you do it.

Problem a: Yes, they make bitter apple spray, but most dogs don't aren't bothered by it. May just have to seperate her from the room or put presents up higher. Can you leave her a Kong when you leave so she has something else to do instead of opening presents? Sometimes dogs get bored, so all those treat toys help. Worked with my dog. Problem b: Can you walk her more often on asphault or on gravel? Whenever we'd take our dog to the lake his nails would get super super short because of all the rocks he was walking over. Can also cause some paw pain though. They have musher's wax (paw wax to help protect the pads) and walk her around on the rocks. They should start to shorten after awhile. As for sedation, they have rescue remedy and other herbal things. When my sister needs to trim her dog's nails and the fur between his pads, her vet suggested some benedryl. You can look up doseage for dogs online. Of course, talk to the vet incase your dog may have an allergic reaction.

The first problem is probably boredom, our dog is well behaved, but if he thinks you are ignoring him he will purposely do something he knows he isn't allowed to do. Take her for a longer walk before you leave her alone, take along toys that she can play with so she is being stimulated and to make her more tired, things you can throw are good, that way she will be doing a lot of running around. You could use a small selection of toys to do this, and use them to play with her inside the house, then leave these toys with her when you go out, so she associates them with playing. Then she has something to do when she is alone.

Walking will sort out her nails as well, if you take her to a park, don't drive there, walk, her claws on the path will cause them to wear down, it isn't as fast as clipping, but it works really well, our dog gets his nails clipped when he has a hair cut, but truthfully, he doesn't need it doing at all, it just makes them really sharp!

She is bored.
Get her a kong and fill it with treats and give it to her when you leave the house.

I get so confused about people leaving dogs roaming in there house though!

We leave our dog roaming the house. He doesn't usually do anything wrong. Once in a while he'll get a little antsy and chew something up (but it's always one of his toys). He's little and it's too cold for him to be outside all day and if we leave him in just one room he'll scratch the hell out of the door (and ruin it) before anyone gets home. He's well behaved so he can roam around the house all day.

We're probably on the opposite side of the things here... too hot to leave the dogs in. I dunno, for me I think my dogs would find it restricting. They love their big back yard :)

We leave Oliver out in the yard during the summer. :P During the winter, though, he gets to stay inside and he LOVES it. Like I said, he's a little dog. We used to leave our big dogs (Rottweiler & Huskies) outside during the winter and they loved it. :P Hated being inside.

Yeah, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that your dogs are bigger dogs, too. My dogs are little and while they enjoy getting time outside to run, they definitely prefer being in the house all day while we're at work.

Our dog was indoors all day when we were at work/school and she rarely caused any damage. For the most part she just ate and slept while we were out, and got her exercise when we got home. She never seemed particularly bothered. It was just her routine (she wasn't a big dog though).

Same, the only thing our dog damages is himself!

paddy's never been an outside dog. he has no idea how the hell to behave outside lol. he just goes to sleep. one of us was usually home anyway and he learned from a pup not to chew on stuff. he's not much of a chewer anyway. he's happy with his kong.

We came home once to find that our dog had chewed up my mom's makeup bag and my dad's mobile phone. It was all a phase though and she has since calmed down (thankfully). I blame it on her being a Springer Spaniel; they are fucking nuts.

I saw an "It's Me or the Dog" episode once where a dog didn't like grooming and would snarl/bite whenever the comb came out. Victoria dealt with that problem by introducing a treat such as a piece of chicken.. a reward that was only given at grooming time. Eventually that particular dog began to associate getting groomed with nice things like treats. Basically I think the idea was that if you make it a positive association, they will be much happier to have whatever it is done to them.

Again, just going off of what I saw on the TV re: bad behaviour when alone in the house.. it might be worth restricting the dogs access to stuff whilst you are out. For instance, keeping them in a room with a doggy gate on the door. They dealt with pooping in the house by introducing a cage but I know thats not for everyone. The idea of the cage is that a dog is really a very clean animal and will not sleep where they toilet.. so to keep them in a cage whilst out, they will hold in their poop and pee. Other than that, perhaps letting her burn off a lot of energy before you are going to be going out for any length of time... a quick run around a field. I don't know. Sorry this wasn't that helpful!

i've got a pit bull and he can be destructive if he gets bored.
a. i always need to dog proof the room if i am leaving him alone. if i do this, he'll mostly just nap on the bed in my room when i leave him.
b. supervise! i'm not sure how you correct your dog, but my dog hates the water spray bottle and will often stop whatever he is doing before i even spray him if he sees it!
c. make sure he has sturdy toys to chew on. my dog LOVES these and doesn't destroy them: http://www.dogtoys.com/fatcat.html and they sell him at target.
d. crate training has been a life saver on keeping him from destroying things when i can't supervise him.