WE were warned! But I didn't believe it.......
When we got Chelsea, my husband who was not familair with the breed went and bought some books, nightly reading as we were listening to her bark in her crate at bedtime. One of the books actually said (I am paraphrasing) that the OES could be expected to do some damage, especially as a puppy. The book said that shoes would be a favorite, as well as sofas, chairs, rugs. You know the normal stuff. And then the book went on to say "don't be surprised if your OES does a little remodeling for you", and then listed doors, doorframes, and walls as equally vulnerable targets. (walls!!?) I only sort of half believed it until I came home yesterday to find that Chelsea had been very busy removing the paper/paint top layer from the drywall and then had also managed to put a nice size hole in the wall using her teeth and claws. Not some little disturbance down by the base board mind you- up high- she REALLY worked, the hole is about 18" from the floor. Lucky for us it was an exterior wall and the brick stopped her from "diggin' her way to freedom". She was pretty proud of it, showed me the mess on the floor (strips of paper and lots of dust) so far the poops have been normal, so she wasn't eating it, just peeling it off and spitting it out. This from an animal who has yet to really do anyhting destructive- I guess we will see- this one has BIG plans, no silly shoes for her, she's going for the full house remodel! 
Up. |
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| He he he, ha ha ha!!! So funny....next time set up the nanny cam to catch it! I too remember this from my last OES...they sure don' tlike being alone! |
| That reminds me of Dancer... I warned my husband, also not familiar with the breed at all, nor even with pets in general. I told him not to be surprised if a few things become casualties of puppyhood...lol... well Dancer was such a good puppy, and still is, so for the longest time she hadn't chewed anything at all. Until one day he was home just with her, he had a day off, the kids were at school, I was at work, and he fell asleep on the couch, and left his very expensive glasses on the table. These silly things were some brand name, perscription eye glasses, 700.00, and Dancer quietly stole them off the coffee table and chewed them beyond repair. LOL
I laughed because she just made up for her whole first year in one snack. We replaced them with cheaper ones...lol.... |
 LOL, I should post photos of my utility room, where Jack and Annabelle were crated during the nights. They chewed HOLES right through the drywall. A few moldings. I think they also had to dig at the wall as well. Funny thing is, I think it was Annabelle more than Jack. They were excellent when they got out though, they never chewed anything they weren't suppose to, aside from of the kids balls. (Jack's main weakness, a ball) 
If you ever go to jail, bring her with you, she will dig through to freedom. LOL We are planning on patching and putting bead board on the lower half of the utility room walls. With a coat of paint, it should look as good as new. Good luck with your little demolition girl.  Stormi and co. |
| I too had no idea what distruction really meant...
we bought a new bed and decided emily would not be sleeping with us anymore, or aleast until the "new" phase ran it's course and we would give into the sad looks at night. that was very short lived, the first time we left the bed room door open while we were out she torn a 2'x3' hole in the pillow top.  bad girl, no bed at all for her now. we taped up what was left of the pillow top and fliped the mattress, and guess what was next... the other side of the pillow top! we got the idea and emily sleeps in bed every night with us now.
we also bought burber rugs (sales guy swore they were great with dogs, less hair could become imbeded) when we decided to sell our house. all it took was one day at work for hundreds of strands of the carpet to be ripped out. for those of you that don't know, if you pull one snag from burber rugs you can pull out a whole row of carpet! all over the house we had huge rows and HOLES ripped out of our new rugs. turns out we couldn't afford to replace the bed after having to replace carpet in the entire first floor. we've become much smarter now, we just bought new leather furniture. as soon as it was set up and we were ready to relax emily jumped up to claim her spot. when i told her to get down she gave me this look that caused flashbacks and she is always welcome on the new furniture. I wish i could have taken picture, well i still have the bed as a reminder . |
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| LOL, it sounds like Emily has you trained very well. I think OES's must be notorious for human mind control. Why do you think we spend so much time on this forum bragging about them. Do any of us have kid forums where we brag about our kids? LOL
I love hearing these stories. Stormi and co. |
| One of the many reasons why I advocate for Crate use! I've seen the destruction 1st hand. Be careful - because in their destructive moods - they can get hurt very easily (chewing electrical cords, choking on small objects, etc.). My sister paid a very hefty price for her destructive basset hound's antics - $3000+ in surgery costs from eating a toy. She almost lost him - before he was even 1 year old! Now, it's possible that Chelsea did this while she was crated - in that case - I don't envy you - you sure will have your hands full!
Before crate training was so common - we used to keep our dogs in the bathroom. Well, my aunt's Bloodhound ate the bathroom!
Kristen (who still loses a shoe every now and again when Sydney feels she isn't getting enough attention! ) |
| even with crate training your pups can get into trouble....
mine has started a rather nasty habit of chewing the baseboards! Don't ask me why... probably because he enjoys it when I tell him NO!! I spend half my life chasing the little (big) guy around keeping him from chewing anything and everything... I have a huge laundry basket full of dog toys, chews, and bones, but noooooooooooo... mommy's shoes look good, or the air hockey table is even better!! |
| Chelsea is still actively remodeling when we are out. She has lessened her pursuit a little bit, I do smack the wall when I get home and say 'no-no'- she ducks way down and starts licking, she is then very contrite for about 60 seconds, then she forgets what she got in trouble for and is back to the blissful existence of being numero uno in our house.
She is not crated during the day, however she is confined to a 10 x 14 space, her crate is in the space and I know she spends lots of time in it just resting- it's always warm when I get home. Her space is relatively hazard free, that's why the wall was just about the only thing she could tear up. I'm going to monitor her and if the problem lessens and the novelty wears off I'm going to let her keep her freedom, however, if the trend continues she may have to be more confined when we are out. I let my last sheepie girl have the run of the house when I wasn't home- no crate training- there was MUCH destruction with her. So I think so far Chelsea is doing alright, of course she has all sorts of cool toys with her all day long, but she ignores them. Up. |
| LOL Love all the stories! Mopsey is enjoying chewing the original wood moldings in our 100 year old house. She has chewed the bottom inch off the ones in the bathroom! She takes the small cat tree and moves it to another end of the room, so we had to tie it to a radiator, she takes the pillows off our beds and throws them on the floor, she also enjoys stealing ANY kind of cloth material: pants, shirts, blankets, socks, dish towels, etc. Oh, and let us not forget that she LOVES the little peices of rug that stick out (thread). She will chew on them until she takes a thread and pulls it out. LOL I am sure I am missing something, but for now that is enouph. LOL |
| Be careful of the wood in those old houses. We rented an old farm house that had lead paint on the baseboards. We only found out after we moved and a friend had gone in to do some renovations. Luckily our dogs weren't chewers. |
Yikes!  I am gonna put something yucky tasting on it! Thanks! |
| We have a toilet paper shredder. Jules loves toilet paper. When we come home she has managed to get a hold of a roll and shred it every time. |
| That's pretty common, Another trick is to grab hold of an end and run through the house with the streamer behind. Really nice when guests are in the house.
The other day I went into the master bedroom and noticed the bed had partially collapsed and was canted about 30 degrees from the wall. The bedding on top was roughed it too...........it must have been either Godzilla or K-9s having fun. |
| Sigh....Cassiopia and Baxter discovered the toilet paper yesterday. I was busy on the computer and when I came out of the office....well....the two of them were sitting in this next of shredded toilet paper. And looking up at me as if to say "Hey Ma - aren't we cute?" Which of course they were.
As for the bed - they consider it a great trampoline. As soon as my husband and I are out of it in the morning the two of them jump on it for a wild game of all star wrestling. Having a neatly made bed is now a fond dream. But all in all - I'd rather have the sheepies! |
| Thankfully mine are out of the TP stage, but the bed is still fair game. Maybe that's why the bed collapsed the other day.........hmmm. I never heard a thing, but then hall way rugs were amiss............ (they chase each other from one end of the house to the other, banking on the sofa or bed) |
| haha as soon as my parents leave walter runs full speed and hops on their bed as well... he also eats all his treats on there so when they get home they have a messy bed full of crumbs!
he also takes one of their decorative pillows off the bed everyday and brings it upstiars and puts it on a chair.... i just dont get him sometimes |
| Ben thinks our bed is his personal lounge area and has been pouting for the past three days. Our builder was doing work in our master bedroom closet and we had to clear the shoes, hamper, etc. out each morning before work. We put a lot of the stuff on our bed to keep it out of the contractor's way. Ben would just stand and stare at the pile on the bed - and go into the corner and sulk. What nerve we have disturbing his nap place?! Luckily the work will be done today and we'll go back to making our bed 3-4 times a day after he has made a wreck of it all by his crash landings!
Sigh, guess he's calming down though, we haven't seen baseboard chewing or toilet paper mountains in a while. Wow, after 5+ years he's not a puppy anymore?? |
| Well - today the remodeling "a-la-sheepie" came to grinding halt.
A little background........ we had a mishap last week with a brand new container (the BIG ONE) of laundry detergent. It exploded in the middle of the night , still haven't figured out why, might need to let Tom Ridge know, this big huge thing of laundry detergent, all over the floor and under the stairs, etc. This is in Chelsea's daytime area. So all weekend long we kept her out of the basement as we proegressively cleaned and re-cleaned the floor and baseboards in the basement. I was convinced she would lick the detergent residue and croak. Today I came home from work, first day back downstairs, and Chelsea did not come to the door to greet me, I looked around, all looked normal, the barricade to the family room was intact, the laundry room door closed, I peeked in her crate, not there. Suddenly my heart stopped- I thought "oh no- the detergent"- I looked around the corner expecting to see a dead animal- nothing. Then I heard a low whine- I looked up to the steps that lead upstairs, and there she was, she had managed to "move" the barricade that keeps her from going up the steps and scratching at the door, but she didn't move it far enough out of her way, it must've still "spooked" her, because she spent the whole day sleeping on the hard wooden steps. Poor thing, she was stiff, she made her way down the stairs after I removed what was left of the barricade. Slowly, with lots of stretching, and lots of little "cow" noises. Silly Pooter! She probably didn't sleep much, figuring out how to get back down to her nice space in the basement, instead she had to sleep in a little confined area on the top step- but there was no remodeling today- hopefully this experience has helped her forget there are walls to move, locks to pick, moldings to chew! We will see tomorrow- my assistant asked me today "did you fix the wall Chelsea tore up?" I replied "why bother?- let's wait 'til she takes it down" So we wait. Up. |
FOr Emily's Mom. Berber carpet. Bunker found one threat on the stairs and my ex houses and pulled. The stairs had to be redone. All I was thinking is I could see her pulling it at first, liking the noise it made and then pulling some more with her little tail and big butt justa wagging away, thinking to herself "Boy, are Mommy and Daddy going to be happy when they see this."  Some people wonder why I call her the beast.
She also figured out how to open the sliding closet doors. I had bought some really cool shoes in Vegas. As I put them away I told her "These are mommy's new shoes, do not touch". I came home the next day and there in the living room was one of the shoes destroyed. She had a piece of leather in her Mouth just hanging there. I never got to even wear them. I was so mad. |
| Your all scaring the heck out ouf me! We are going to pick up our new female pup in 3 weeks at O'Hare. I've already bought a crate with a divider so hopefully this will cut down on the destuction. Also my wife will be home during the day most of the time to keep an eye on her. Do those of you who crate train leave your grown dogs in there all day when you are away? |
| Dancer is not totally full grown, but at 9 1/2 months old she is close. She is still very much a puppy though, and both my girls are in their crates while we are at work. It's just safer, for the dogs and the house. When my first OES was about 3 yrs old I was able to leave her out of her crate for short time periods while I was out, but still crated her if I was going to leave for any length of time. As she got older, it was just habit, and she always went into her crate on her own anyway if she knew we were going out. |
| I let Emily have the run of the house (no more berber) now that we have a smaller place. Other than the garbage and the coffee (she steals coffee ground or beans of the counter) she hasn't had any major destruction episodes. The only time we crate her is when we know that the maintence guys arec oming in. we just make sure all the temptations are locked up (garbage in the bathroom, all the wires are covered and the coffee is in the cupboard). |
| Oh boy... Lennon and Sofa tried to remodel our stairs, they managed to pull the rugs from it and chewed on the undermat... Took me a couple of hours to put anything back and my wife found it funny. They trained us to keep the lids on all trash cans or else....
Thank god their interior decorator career ended up soon, but now they decided landscaping is their next big thing... sigh. Take a look! http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?t=1686 |
| Wow.....you guys are scaring me!!! Max was always crated until recently. He's now 1 1/2 and stays out at night and while we are out. He is only crated when we have guests over. He tends to be OVERLY FRIENDLY and trys to LOVE them to death. He hasn't destroyed anything major....ate my welcome carpet in the foyer....that's about it. He is an expert escape artist though.....He finds any way he can to break out of the yard. He loves the neighbors two boys and I have been called to tell me..."YOUR BEAST GOT OUT AGAIN". We now have a combination of fencing and electric wire fence. My neighbors are not too fond of being "LOVED" by MOOSE at 6:30 am when trying to leave for work.
Rosie has been a BREEZE so far. NOT A POOP OR PEE IN THE HOUSE! or even in her room! We have her locked in the Laundry room until we get her a crate. She holds it until she goes out and goes immediately once you tell her "go potty". She barks before pooping. She's a HOOT! I really thing having two helps!! Less pressure for me! They have each other to playwith. [/img] |
| They still very much need to be with their people though.... as soon as you get her a crate it is best to leave it where she can still see and hear her people, and the bustle of a normal household. Lots of time away from normal everyday life can turn a wonderful puppy into a neurotic dog who cannot handle the stresses of normal everyday life. |
| My husband was working on the baby's room the other day and was in the garage. Pepsi chewed some plastic containers my husband had bought to mix joint compound in... Never used thank god. The rest of the stuff was placed by him strategically throughout the house.
We have no idea what destruction he would do while we are not home so for now he is crated. Our German Shepherd on the other hand started causing problems in just the past couple of month. We installed a doggie door this past summer so the dogs wouldn't have to stay outside when we were out. They could get out of the heat into the nice Air Conditioned house. Harley was fine until about October and I can't help but think it has something to due with my pregnancy. The first thing he did was get into some boxes we hadn't unpacked yet..this was in my office . (We moved here in June) He destroyed a few stuffed animals and shredded some boxes. Then he redecorated the room by pushing the mattress off the box spring onto the floor. The next thing he did was get into the toilet paper and shredded about 6 rolls. Then he decided to destroy my comforter in the master bedroom. So he was banished to the backyard when we were out. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him have run of the house again. This time he ate the bed in my office. My office is now being transformed into the baby's room and we really didn't have any place to store the bed. I guess Harley knew this and decided he would help us out. He ate a big chunk out of the mattress which was an expensive pillow top...then threw the mattress off the boxspring and completely shredded the boxspring. My husband thinks it's cruel to put him in his crate again. I'm not sure why. It was ok for the 2 1/2 years we had him until we moved here. When I put Pepsi in the crate...Harley's old crate Harley wants to go in. My Sister-in-law a dog breeder thinks Harley needs Prozac. I think this might all be his reaction to my pregnancy. Anyone have any suggestion? Elissa |
| Elissa,
I would bet it has something to do with your pregnancy. When did Pepsi arrive? Would it have anything to do with the addition of a new dog? I would just show him some extra attention and one on one attention. He may just be acting out for attention. I'm sure he'll be fine when the new baby comes along. Kristen |
| Kristen,
Pepsi has only been here for about 3 1/2 weeks. Harley started acting up in October. I hope his behavior subsides once the baby is born. We had one episode in our old house with Harley that I forgot to mention. It was last winter. The dogs were in their crates in the garage or so I thought. My Husband accidentally turned the light off in the garage when he shut the door. He also did not put Harley in his crate. He thought he'd be fine wondering around the garage...which I am sure he would have been if the light was on. Harley probably feeling a bit crazy with no light chewed through an extension cord that was plugged in. He didn't make it through the ground wire...thank god or he wouldn't be here with us right now, but he did manage to burn his tongue and gums. A portion of his tongue is gone now and he had to have a tooth pulled. He still has dead tissue on his gums.. Nothing the vet can do. They wanted to take out the other took but x-rays showed his jaw would shatter if they did. What a drama!! After the dogs had run of the house here we made sure there was always a light on and usually the radio so at least they would here peoples voices. He was fine for months. It has to be the pregnancy. I don't think a dog would just develop seperation anxiety after 4 yrs. Elissa |
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