Quote:
Originally Posted by aweitzm1  Hi All,
I can use all the help. I recently adopted two 5 year old yorkies this weekend. At night I crate them and they seem fine with it as long as they hear my tv playing.
Since I work full time I have gated off my kitchen area and left their crate door open. I left them today for the first time for about 2 hours. When I returned they got into the shelf with paper/plastic plates and one of them chewed the plastic off the other's collar. Now I need to replace the collar.
I left them classical music playing and plenty of chew toys. I would love ideas as to how to avoid them chewing things they are no suppose to.
A friend suggested crating them with nothing in their. I have a dog walker coming around noon so they would be crated 4-7 hours approximately. I hate the idea of crating them that long with no stimulation.
I would love to teach them not to chew and I have corrected the behavior when I see it. They have become very attached to me and want to sit where ever I am.
I go back to work on Thursday full time. I am very anxious to leave them alone after what I saw. I plan on leaving them tomorrow for an hour and Wed. for approximately three hours.
I appreciate any feedback |
Now, the fun starts!!
I like you leaving them for periods of time...they will get used to those periods of when you leave, and they will adjust. But, I crate mine whenever I leave the house....they are like kids and I do not trust kids out of my sight! All it takes is ONE instigator to turn the entire pack into misbehaving monsters!!! So, I crate! It also makes it easier God forbid, incase of an emergency, if they are all in one spot and not trying to run and hide from danger.....mine are all on a schedule from the time they are old enough to know about schedules....everybody goes down at noon - 4pm for naps....I need that time to get the MINIMAL amount of housework or errands done....and I can promise you, if I left them alone, even penned up in the kitchen, they would get bored and I can imagine them eating the baseboards, the trim, and the wall paper off the walls!
When I crate them for naps, they have water and I put one of those Himilayan (?? sp ???) chews in with them....they cant chew hunks off those and strangle, and I have never had one break a tooth on them, so for now, they work for us. They also used to have really hard bully sticks that I loved and trusted as chew material....they could not chew pieces off and they usually just chew for 20-30 minutes, then they go to sleep for naps. I really like those heavy braided rope toys....they can really chew and chew and I think those are really safe for them. Bedtime, I put food and water and that rope chew toy.....and I always cover my crates with a sheet....when the sheet goes over the crate, they know "it is lights out, time to sleep!