Destructive behaviour, am I treating it right?!

Hi all, sorry to ask yet another question but I want to make sure I'm treating this the right way!

Until a few weeks ago, Molly was never interested in anything that wasn't 'hers'. However, she then started taking teddies, shoes etc. and hoarding them. More recently (say in the past 2 weeks or so) she has gradually got worse to the point where she has started actually going out of her way to get things (she takes things off the table, out of the bin, off book cases/shelves etc.) and will then destroy them.

At the moment, if she's got something like a tissue or a bit of paper, I'll ignore her, let her tear it up then pick her up and put her in her bed for a few minutes while I clear up. If she has something like a shoe I'll try to distract her with one of her own toys & get it off her. I'm guessing that the first option is probably the best course of action to take because she isn't getting any attention for being destructive but is there anything I should be doing differently? She doesn't seem to be getting any better, only worse

She`s not being destructive - she`s playing. To us it`s destruction, to a dog it`s practice for life skills (hunting prey). It really doesn`t matter if you give her attention or not - she`s not going to stop this behaviour because it`s normal. What you can do is teach `Swap` and keep giving her her own toys instead of her `prize` that you don`t want to have.
If she`s ripping up stuff in the house that you can`t remove, teach Leave and reward and play with her with something that`s OK.
Dogs don`t really understand possessions as something to take care of. They do however, get used to playing with certain objects (dog toys) instead of others (shoes etc) as they get older, but you have to educate them to it.

Thanks very much for the reply C&D! I suppose I do realise that she's just playing (although it's hard to remember that when she's trying to eat a book!) so I'll definitely try to teach 'leave' and 'swap' and see if it works. Thank you!

When you say she's hoarding these things, could you give some more information? as some dogs have hormones which lead them to think they are pregnant and behave accordingly. Not sure if this might be it, from your description

I agree that teaching leave and swap is very good. Also you can minimise problems by setting her up for success, ie giving her lots of attention for bringing you her own toy/s. Dogs are often given more attention when they are being a pest than when they are lying quietly "being good" - try to ensure that with your dog, it is the other way round. This is one of the key things to do, to having a "good dog" IMO

Wys
x

agree with all the above

Also why not give her fun toys that she CAN rip up
I restuff some of Mias toys so she can rip the stuffing out again, I give ther cardbord loo rolls she can rip up, empty drinks bottles
and when you are swapping and teaching a leave remember dont always take the item away, swap for something yummy and (if its an OK thing to destroy) give it back to her - then she has no reason to keep things from you

Hi Wys, thanks for the reply!

I'm unsure as to whether that's her problem, although it could be as I wouldn't really know! The way she 'hoards' she will often steal a few shoes & stick them in her bed for safe keeping or rip up tissues from the bin and hide them under my duvet. Occasionally she will also take things like socks off the radiators & create a little pile for her to burry her 'treasures' in!

As for giving her more praise/attention for being good & less for being bad, I have been trying that actually with her recently. Usually I will ignore her if she has something that isn't hers or try to swap it with something nice like one of her own toys & praise her if she swaps but often she isn't interested. I'm unsure if i'm rewarding her for her good behaviour but I think I am...? I usually make an effort to sit down & actually play with her toys together & make it fun for her. Like hiding a treat in the snout of her piggy toy & praising when she finds it or hiding her toys around the house & getting her to find them & bring them to me, or just making a massive fuss of her when she plays fetch with me (It's taken her ages to learn that!) if that's the sort of thing you mean?

Thanks again!


Thanks for the reply!

I have got a couple of her stuffed dog toys that I've sewn up so she can re-destroy them but the moment she chews through them she seems to become far less interested in them.

Is it alright to give her household stuff that is 'okay' for her to rip up? I only ask because when I was in the rescue centre I was reading a poster on the wall about a puppy being unable to distinguish between things of yours that they're 'allowed' and things of yours that they're not 'allowed' so I took that to mean that I should avoid letting her chew anything that wasn't 'hers'. If it is okay though I bet she would love some toilet rolls as they're one of the things she likes to steal

Thanks again!