11-Month old Boxer Chewing Furniture When Left Out

1084 Views 7 Replies 8 Participants Last post by LeoRose, Jan 27, 2018

CrazyBoxerPup

Discussion Starter · Jan 22, 2018

My wife and I have been trying to train our boxer to be able to not have to go into his crate when we leave the house. Sometimes he doesn't touch anything. We get home, cushions are on the couch and nothing is destroyed. Other times he rips apart the cushions or finds something else to chew.

My wife and I want to leave him out of his crate while we are at work like we do for our 10-yr old puggle. But his behavior is too erratic for us to feel comfortable, even for an hour. Sometime we can leave for 3-4 hours and he's good. Other times it could be an hour and things are destroyed. We would fill their kongs but my older one has been alone for so long she gets territorial with anything concerning treats and other dogs.

We feel HORRIBLE putting him in his crate while we go to work. We had our puggle trained to be out of her crate when she was younger than him at his age.

Any tips or advice on what we can try?

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Canyx

· #2 · Jan 23, 2018

I would suggest going back to the crate. Some dogs just take a little longer to settle down when alone (for some dogs, it never happens!). If your boxer is already crate trained then it is really you who is stigmatizing the crate; he likely is comfortable and fine in there. Many owners who work 8-10 hour days crate their dogs for that period of time with no adverse effect.

You might also look into an exercise pen if you want to grant more freedom but still contain him.

Any practiced behavior is more likely to become habit. So by 'testing it', your dog might be self-learning to chew on furniture and it will be a harder problem to solve the more he does it.

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