Dog tearing up toys and furniture

[Magpyex]

I'm sure someone will be along to correct me or give some better help in a while but I always just assumed this was a natural thing for a dog to do?

What sort of toys are you giving her? You might just have to invest in some of those super indestructable toys

[sarah1983]

Well I've not managed to find a way to stop mine tearing up his toys. As far as I'm concerned they're his toys to do what he wants with though. I have found that giving him empty boxes, toilet roll tubes etc to shred seems to lessen how much effort he puts into wrecking his toys. He also has a couple of bones lying around that he gnaws on. Hasn't stopped him tearing his toys up but they last a bit longer now.

[ClaireandDaisy]

I regard dog toys as temporary diversions - the ones that last they find dull so give up on them.
So now I buy cheap ones. Plus the occasional Wubba because they`ll play with the bits that are left.

[wilbar]

There are some pretty indestructible toys out there for persistant chewers, but these are not always the most exciting toys ~ most of the fun is being able to shred a toy to bits & liberate the "squeaky" inside. Then your dog can run around with the little bit of squeaky plastic in it's mouth which scares you to death in case your dog swallows it ~ but this is also good fun as well as what better than a game of chase with a clumsy human.

My mother spent the last winter knitting cuddly toys for my dogs (we've got pigs, cats, elephants, giraffes etc in all different colours & stuffed with kapok(?)). She's so impressed as my dogs take them with happy faces, waggy tails, & calmly take them to their toy box ~ & there they stay! But for the last toy she knitted I gave her a "squeaky" to put inside before she sewed it up ~ this toy lasted 5 minutes. It was shredded to bits, stuffing all over the garden & the "squeaky" once again liberated & available to choke the next dog it came across.

[Jukesgirl]

My dog is a border cross and he is the same - he feels that any toy that says it is indestructible is his chance to prove that it isn't.

He chews on everything I give him and almost always 'kills' it rather quickly.

For me the answer was to give him some of the toys and keep certain toys back for times when he is playing with me specifically. So if i want a bit of a tug of war and some time throwing stuff with him, i have a squeaky wubba that we play with but then when fun time is over i put the wubba away and he has other toys to keep himself amused with.

I also spent an hour or so a few weeks ago ripping up and platting together old pillow cases (yes, i have no life) the end result looks like a multi-coloured squid that Ruffus carries around, chews at, i can throw it and play tug with him and hide food in some of the gaps ... it seems to be lasting longer than anything else!

The things is - this is all well and good, but at the moment Ruffus is an only dog (this won't always be the case but he is working through some emotional baggage because he is a rescue) but i have no idea how you would keep him from chewing up other dogs toys as you have said you have more than one dog, unless you keep them separated during play time but i can't see that being good for any of the dogs.

Sorry i couldn't be a bit more helpful

[sarah1983]

I don't think dogs see things as belonging to someone the way we do so to them there probably is no toy that "belongs" to the other dog if you know what I mean. If the other dog doesn't have hold of it then as far as they're concerned it's anyones for the taking. I have no idea whether it's possible to teach them that a certain toy is off limits to them but not to your other dog.