Kingdom of Pets

Posted by Elaine
Oct 9, 2009

I have a 2 year old Border Collie mix. I travel a great deal and when I am gone, she and my Chow mix (12 years old) are wlaked two to three times a day and fed twice a day by my neighboor. I do not have a fenced yard, I live in a rural setting and only sometimes alow them to run free usually just before breakfast or dinner (the call of these two words has them running in for food!) While I'm gone on business trips they are walked on a leash only and there is no one in the house all day until my neighboor stops by. When I'm home I play with her during the day and sometimes they are both in my studio when I work.

My problem is that during these trips, the border collie mix chews on her bed. First it was just the corner where she pulls the stuffing out, this last time she completely distroyed it.

I understand this is out of bordom. She needs to be busy doing something ALL the time. My neighboor does her best to bring them over to her house when she's home, but she works some days and cannot do this.

Rawhide chew bones work wonderfully for the bordom but....she goes through them so fast and I'm affraid of her choking if they are given to her unsupervised.

Any suggestions???

Thanks so much.

Elaine

Posted by KOPsarah
Oct 11, 2009

Hi Elaine and thanks for your post,
There are several things you can try which should help:
-you could purchase or build a dog run so that your dogs can be outside during the day while you are away on trips.
-you can try treat balls and kongs filled with treats to keep them busy for an hour or two once or twice a day
-try to build up a good selection of solid chewable toys and ask your neighbor to rotate them to keep them interesting
-try leaving on some quite background music
-If your border collie is reliable ask your neighbor if she would consider playing fetch with your border collie and a ball thrower. This is high speed high energy exercise for your border collie with minimum energy input for the person throwing who can simply stand still and throw the ball without even having to touch it when it gets slimy. The more exercise your young dog gets the more settled she will be during the time she is left inside.

I hope these help, keep in mind changing your dogs bed to something less chewable and with a slippery texture may put her off chewing (although it will not solve the boredom). If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Posted by Elaine
Oct 12, 2009

Thanks so much for your reply. I do leave on soft music and have a "chew proof" (hah!) bed but she is lacking in good solid chew toys...I will do that. Now I just have to train the neighbor to play with her!....she's really isn't a interactive-play-with dog person.

Thanks again for your help.

Love this site and the training manual I bought almost 2 years ago, I refer to it opten.

Posted by beaddictedcomcastnet
Oct 12, 2009

As an inexperienced owner of two Australian Shepherd pups, I can vouch for 'kong' toys of a size appropriate for your girl- I load it them with a couple of hard biscuits, then fill the rest with a kong stuffing (comes in a dispenser like whipped cream and pressure loads the goo to fill in the rest of the space- then I freeze them until I need them- one each occupies them for an hour, sometimes two, then its another toy until you get home- they seem to really like the cold frozen filling-
good luck,
Trish

Chewing Her Dog Bed