[Brien]

There have been countless posting about beagles chewing on cell phones, shoes, linens, brushes, hats, etc. Just last night Bodie finished off is $80 dog bed.

In the past when Bodie tore through a dog toy I'd get out a needle, some industrial thread and patch it back up. But it's gotten to the point where as soon as I give it back to him he's undone all my handy work and/or put a new hole in it.

So we've gone from cute fuzzy appealing toys to super durable 4-layer toys that take him two hours to start destroying. At $20 a pop, those toys are simply too expensive to keep replacing.

My question is this... when will it end. When does puppy hyperness and mischief end? When can we leave the dog unattended for more than 5 minutes without him getting into trouble.

I think overall Bodie is a pretty well behaved dog... when we're supervising him. It's those times he sneaks off and no one is watching that he feels the need to chew on something until it is destroyed.

I've heard dogs are considered puppies until they're 2 years old. Does this apply to beagles too? If so, it's going to be a long 2 years.

 

[nmartin32]

Well Brien,
I can't speak for all but in my case, Coco didn't grow out of his puppy stage till he was about 2yrs old. He use to chew through everything, you name it he did it. It got to the point that I stopped buying him toys and just bought him bones instead to destory. He still destorys our socks, shoes, his bed etc every once in a while but not as bad as when he was a pup. Maybe some puppy classes could help if you haven't taken him yet. I know it helped my friend's dog.

 

[Mollys Mom]

Molly is 3 and she just can be destructive to her toys. She stopped her destruction to items in the house and things like the feeding stands. However she just shredded her dog bed a few days ago. I try to make sure she has a daily chew of some sort. She will just lay on her bed chewing and chewing her stuffed animals.

 

[silleb]

Ben has grown out of the random item (shoes, flooring, tables, etc.) destruction phase (knock on wood) and he is 2.5 years old. We leave him home unattended for 6-7 hours during the day sometimes and the worst we have come home to is the kitchen garabge all over the floor a couple of times.

He is still destructive with most stuffies. He has one large moose stuffie (about the same size as him) that he has had since Christmas that has only lost one ear. This is a miracle really.

We usually buy him really cheap stuffies (under a dollar) from Zellers or the dollar store. He plays with them for a awhile and then they are expertly destuffed.

We don't bother with expensive toys - not worth the money!

 

[Sephly]

i feel ur pain.
80 dollar dog bed with internal heat and massage feature. destroyed.
160 work boots destroyed
2 dvr remotes (50 each) check.
electrical work under porch that cut lighting to half the house and would have cost over 1000 to fix (thank god my dad's a contractor) done that too.
*sigh* been there, yelled about it, am thinking of getting tshirts done.........i'll send u one if it pans out.

and go figure my dog isn't really a chewer either. its only on the rare occasion that he'll chew something. (he prefers socks actually) if he were a chewer (some beagles that can chew thru a black kong...) i'd probably gone crazy by now.

Luckily for the most part, its puppy kong and cowbones. but when they want to get in trouble, boy do they go all out.

 

[Java]

Hmm..I'm not sure if they grow out of destroying toys--afterall, you are offering it to him to have his way with it. Lilo's 3 and still likes to destroy stuffed animals and cloth-based toys. Java's the better destroyer of the two, but they only target toys and items that have been offered to them.

I've improvised myself: tearing and tying up old dickies pants (they're TOUGH), and tying up a bunch of old socks (beware, if you dont like sock remnants ALL over the place). They seem to enjoy those, so I'm not complaining

I feel your pain, though. I've resorted to tougher toys (kongs, balls, ropes) as stuffed animals are no match for my dynamic duo. It kinda stinks because I know Lilo likes being tucked in with her stuffed toys, but it never survives.

 

[Murphys Dad]

Well, as far as destroying toys, our boys are 5 and 9 years old. They destroy stuffed toys at warp speed.

That's why we go to Goodwill where we can buy bagsful for a dollar or two.

Otherwise, they're not destructive. Of course, since they have the workshop, and aren't left in the house unattended, I can't say for sure that they wouldn't destroy anything. All I can say is that they don't bother anything when they're in the house with us.

 

[Jennifer]

Neither Rosa (8yrs) nor Sherry (10 yrs) destroy anything really. They have never destroyed anything that isn't their's i.e. furniture but Rosa has made a few holes in plush toys and Sherry has almost ripped a hole in their bed but not quite (give her a few more months).

My first dog Lilly however destroyed all her toys, all my furniture, carpets, lino, electric cables, phones, remotes, washing machine handles, clothes, shoes blah blah blah...the list is endless. She carried on being destructive with household things until she was about 5 yrs old then stopped but still destroyed all her toys until her last year of life aged 9.

 

[mrsjenlester]

Ours grew out of it at about age 2. We also went through remotes,jeans,shoes,hair scruncies,an entire couch

phone books, carpet and countless toys that we just stopped buying and replaced with raw hides. Hang in there!

 

[beagletails]

Our older dogs (2 & 5) do not seem to be bad about destroying things anymore. Or stealing things either. Our two younger ones, both 1.5 still have the bad habits though. That is why they are crated at night and no longer have beds to sleep on. They get a couple of blankets and that is it. I think 2 years is appropriate with Beagles, but I am sure that can vary.

 

[Brien]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm taking two things away from here.

First, he's going to be an active puppy until he's at least 2. And secondly, stop wasting our money buying stuffed toys.

But let me ask you this. Do you think dogs that have soft stuffed toys to play with think all soft stuff are chew toys too? Perhaps that's where the breakdown is. Dogs can't distinguish between the two.

So if we stopped giving him stuff toys would that help curb chewing on his dog bed, comforters, cloths and other similar items. I think he would eventually respond to that sort of training where all soft items would be off limits. I'd have no problem sticking to rope, rubber and plastic toys if that works.

What do you think about this approach?

 

[silleb]

You are right about the stuffed toys.

Although we buy Ben very cheap stuffies, he obviuosly cannot distinguish them from my stepson's expensive and staggering collection of Webkinz. Many an unattended Webkinz has lost an eye or two. Now the Webkinz live on shelves out of the beag's reach or at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

 

[Jennifer]

I've always stood by the rule that anything left on the floor is fair game. They do find it hard to distinguish between what's theirs and what's yours if things are left lying around.

If you leave your socks on the floor and your beagle chews them up you can hardly blame them for not understanding the difference between a sock and a soft toy.

If you give them a rubber toy to chew on then inadvertently leave your brand new rubber beach sandals (what I did) on the floor, don't be surprised if they get chewed up too.

 

[Mom of 2 Beagles]

Ours got run of the house at age 4. Meaning that before that we kept them in their luxurious pen when we weren't home to prevent destruction of the home. ha ha We got Sadie and Pooh Bear together as puppies. They were a handful and difficult to train 2 puppies at once. They may have learned things slower as there were 2 of them.

 

[Overland Hound]

Jazz stopped being hyper destructive at around 1 year old. Gone are the days of pulling up carpet, destroying the toilet plumbing (twice), annhilating flip flops/shoes, glasses, shift knobs (yes, in my truck), hats, and the tattered wasteland of chew toys. Now she could care less about chew toys or chewing anything for that matter. On occassion, when she feels that she has been slighted by me she will nibble on my shoelaces, the brim of a hat, or the rear temple piece of my glasses. She'll take a couple bites (enough to leave a mark), drag whatever it is to the middle of the room or the door if I'm gone, and leave it there to demonstrate her displeasure.

I keep her as active as possible and she spends a ton of time with my sister's pack which I think helped her grow out laying waste to everything. Digging was a big deal too but Jazz ceased that at around the same time she stopped chewing.

 

[Murphys Dad]

Jersey stayed pretty destructive until she was about 18 months old, give or take. I stopped buying toys at the store about 3 years ago. I had a friend (she actually has Jersey's litter mate) give me a catalog for a company called Pet Edge. They sell toys at wholesale prices. The same toy that they sell at the pet shop for $8, I can get for less than $2 sometimes. It's a great place to get toys from. At those prices, I don't care so much if she destroys them. There is a $60 minimum order to avoid a sur-charge, but it adds up fast. I make one or two big orders a year to avoid it. To me, it's worth it. They have a website www.petedge.com as well. Check them out.

Jersey has learned where her toys are kept. I had a couple of unfortunate instances when she was younger, but once I got her a nice big toy box she learned that those were hers to chew on.

 

[cobismom]

I can relate so well...but I hate to tell you, some of them never do grow out of it. Cobi is 7 and even he can tear apart a toy or pillow or shoe in seconds flat. Casie of course is faster, but Cobi is methodical about his trouble. Other than barring toys from the house, putting every thing on the ceiling and behind closed doors...beagles are chewers and destroyers...what can we say?

 

[jassy]

Maggie will be three in May. She started to improve at about 16 months, but it has only been in the last 6 months or so that I have been able to leave her uncrated in the house for short periods of time. She does still destroy her stuffed toys but I just buy the inexpensive ones. Right after holidays the Petco/Petsmart stores mark their holiday toys 75% off and I just stock up then.

 

[BookerMoose]

Moosie still destroys toys at 8 1/2 - but I really do think he thinks that he is hunting and killing them (he licks their bellies before ripping them into bits). He has never chewed anything other than toys and seems to know the difference (we adopted him at 1 1/2 and so I don't know if he had a destructive phase).

Buzz is another story, though. He is about 2 1/2 now, we estimate, and he eats duvets. I'm hoping he will grow out of it, as we are on about our eighth duvet since Buzz arrived (luckily I've found a source of relatively cheap duvets). He has also eaten one dog bed and two sofa cushions.

 

[deedeebee]

I hope Zelda grows out of it soon as well. She's almost a year old now and she destroys BIG time. A lot of it is a game to her and she knows she isn't supposed to take certain things that aren't hers, but she does so anyways, and tries to destroy it before we can get it back. If we ignore her when she does this, she runs over to us and nips our leg or something and then runs away with the item again. Silly little bugger.

But they can be quite sneaky and get things/chew them apart when we don't see it.

ie: Fight Club DVD example... it actually looks better this way hahahaa