Ares the Destructive

My poor amazing husband has been having a rough week. I have been working late all week, so he has been getting home before me these last couple nights.

Monday and Tuesday night Ares was especially destructive. Last night he ate the brand new Elf DVD, Cranium, a candle and more of the ottoman (the top now). Then Dylan left them locked in the bathroom when he picked me up, but when we got back, they had escaped and ate the trash Dylan had picked up before he left.

Sigh.

When I had left work Dylan told me about the first part, he said he felt we had four options.

1) Training

2) Doggie day care

3) Lock them outside

4) Get rid of the dog

Well I told him #4 was not an option. The practical reason being that we already spent a lot of money on the dog and the better reason being that he is a part of our family. If we had a problem child, we clearly wouldn't just get rid of them.

Locking them outside isn't a great option, but I understand where Dylan is coming from. We cannot keep toilet paper or a hand towel in the bathroom, we cannot keep anything on top of the washer and dryer since the dogs will take it all outside or eat it.

Doggie day care is a great option, except for the cost. We may see if we can fit this into our budget at some point, for a couple times a day.

Training is the best option. The hard part is ideally we would be home all the time and be able to tell him to "leave it" when he goes after things. We just don't know for sure if it is boredom that is causing his destruction, or separation anxiety. We initially thought it was just teething, but he has had his adult teeth in for a while now. We are going with boredom for now.

The plan:

A) Walk every week day morning, for at least 30 minutes. We started walking the dogs this morning. With the wind chill it was maybe 2 degrees, but it actually wasn't too bad.

B) Training classes. We will definitely start training classes again in January. Just spending more time with the dogs and getting their skills down will help them listen and behave better.

C) Keep them locked in the bathroom. The hard part is that due to the winter, the door frame has shrunk just enough that the door doesn't stay latched, so we had to put the gate up in the bathroom. We will also just try to leave it as empty as possible so they cannot eat anything.

D) Keep them busy. I think we are going to try the bully sticks and freezing peanut butter in their kongs and just make sure they have plenty to chew on and do during the day.

Hopefully this all works out and we can minimize the destruction going forward and eventually leave them out to roam the house again.