i'm losing shoes!

ok so first of all everybody knows that I love harley to death. but right now I feel like popping his big head off! In the mourning dave leaves at 6 for work. Harley jumps on the bed, pushes on me, smacks me, whines, rubs against the bed.... everything he can think of untill I get up. I usually get 30 mins of rest in between, lol. I get up around 7 or 8. usually 8. by then, he has always found something to chew up! This didn't start untill just recently and now his favorite victoms are my shoes! I've lost my favorite pair of heels, my old tennis shoes, and two pairs of flats because of him. I am seriously running out of shoes. Oh, and i lost some flip flops. I try to keep everything out of reach but that is easier said then done when you have a man and a toddler living in your home. He always goes for my stuff when he can find it though. I just got up this mourning after he wouldn't leave me alone and I saw him chewing up another pair of my flats! When he saw me looking at him he hunkered down and left the bedroom. I've never hit him or even yelled at him for chewing stuff up but he always knows when I'm not happy with him, yet this doesn't stop him. He goes for a walk in the mourning and a jog in the evening and he eats 6 cups of food a day, so it can't be pint up energy or frustration could it? And I know he isn't hungry. He grew out of his crate so we started leting him stay out a few months ago and everything has went smoothly untill lately. I want to let him stay out but I don't know what to do!

You need to take ownership of the issue, and keep all your shoes out of his reach. If you don't have a closet you can shut them inside of, get a sturdy box - an "underbed box with lid" would do if storage space is an issue and be completely diligent about all shoes going IN the box when they are not on your feet.

Then make sure there are plenty of "okay-to-chew" things around at all times.

He WILL outgrow this eventually, but until then, you need to keep all shoes away from him.

It is boredom - he needs something to do, so get a bunch of cheap chew toys to give him.

When our family St. Bernard Freckles was a pup, when I was a teenager, if I left my closet door open (duh, stoopid me) she would carefully select one shoe to chew - always from a pair that she hadn't chewed yet, of course!

This is why I got the largest crate possible and crate Taggart. I left him out one day a while ago when it was really hot because I felt bad about him being in the crate with the heat. That morning Bruce said he started being a brat and waking him up over an hour before he needs to get up.
So this summer I will leave him out of the crate until I get up in the morning. When I get up he will go in the crate until Bruce gets up. It's only for a few hours.
Luckily Taggart hasn't discovered chewing shoes. But he chews just about anything else, including our deck!!
So I feel your pain and we will just have to deal with it until they grow out of it. Sometimes I feel like he's never going to though.

I immediately thought crate when I read your post. Or... You need to keep your shoes put away... Or... Tie him up somehow.

Bunny and Eli have an over-sized chair that they both sleep in. To keep them there we got thin chains from Lowe's (Cut to Length, cheap ones) and hooked carabiners to them. They stay tied up to the chair until I'm read to get up. We had originally used leashes with B and E, but Eli chewed through both of them when he was younger, so we switched to metal chains and he leaves them be. Zeke is attached to the dresser leg with an extra leash... next to his bed. All of this so we can sleep with the bedroom door open... and get a breeze through the house at night, without the dogs going to check out the trash in the middle of the night.

lol, before I leave and before bed I usually do a walk through of the house making sure everything is put up, no shoes on the floor, none of brookes toys out, trash is put up out of his reach, but he always finds something I've forgotten about. He has even gotten into my closet, because dave never knows how to close doors and got my shoes, he has even gotten them out from under my bed, no idea how they got there. Brooke, my toddler is obsessed with my shoes too, so she is always dragging them out so now I have two shoe theives.:rolleyes: he discovered that I had a coat on the back of one of the chairs in the kitchen with dog treats in the pocket... needless to say, the treats are gone and the shirt isn't wearable anymore.

One thing that worked for both of my dogs is yelling at the shoes. You have to make a real scene about it, screaming, hitting, stomping your foot at the shoe(while holding it works best). He will associate the shoes with horrible things and stay away from them. Try to do it when no one can hear you or people will thing you lost your marbles lol. We had gotten that tip from the puppies for dummies book, we didn't try that at first because it sounded weird, but at a last resort we tried it and it worked. Our dogs all started with chewing shoes. Niether have touched them since. (may not work for every dog, but worth a try)

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Originally Posted by Jags mom

One thing that worked for both of my dogs is yelling at the shoes. You have to make a real scene about it, screaming, hitting, stomping your foot at the shoe(while holding it works best). He will associate the shoes with horrible things and stay away from them. Try to do it when no one can hear you or people will thing you lost your marbles lol. We had gotten that tip from the puppies for dummies book, we didn't try that at first because it sounded weird, but at a last resort we tried it and it worked. Our dogs all started with chewing shoes. Niether have touched them since. (may not work for every dog, but worth a try)

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lol.. that's so funny! My fiance and I were lauphing when we red this, but I'll give it some thought;)

He WILL outgrow this eventually, but until then, you need to keep all shoes away from him.

It is boredom - he needs something to do, so get a bunch of cheap chew toys to give him.

the above is true... we tried several different things in our house... 1) put a few pennies or some old un-needed screws in an old (washed out first) soda can & close the hole w/ duct tape; when the pup does something you don't like shake the can at them & the noise will startle them. 2) we have an old worn out unwearable belt, it is split in 2, & the first time we used it we held both ends of the belt a little slack & snapped it taut ... it makes a loud crack & startles them... 3) when caught in the act of actually eating one of my daughter's shoes I grabbed the shoe from his mouth & yelled at him while shaking the shoe in his face. I said, "is this YOURS? are you ALLOWED to eat shoes?" & bopped him on the nose.. (didn't hit him hard, just startled him) he no longer eats shoes :D
We used to keep him crated when we were either asleep or away & one day he didn't want to go into his "house" & we actually reasoned with him... told him that if he could be a good boy & not destroy anything that we would let him sleep on the couch (his favorite spot) & he's been good ever since...
dogs really are smart & DO understand us
Good luck:love:

thanks for the advise. I can never catch harley in the act though, he always waits untill I'm away. I know he has done something when I get home because he is sitting in the corner when I walk through the door and not jumping around. Needless to say, I can't really do much about something he has already destroyed but he can tell when I'm disapointed with him, even when I don't say anything to him. Its amazing how they pick up so easily on our energy. Today was good though. I've been doing some thorough spring cleaning so nothing was down where he could get to it. I didn't have time to put all the clothes away and was afraid that maybe he would deside to dragf them all though the house but to my suprise he was good!

I have lost finger nails and toe nails. One toe nail was cut off for ingrown toe nail and two others were ripped off while I was being a kid and running wild with no shoes outdoors. All of my nails have grown back, even though the dr said the one they cut out wouldnt.

Gotta say I'm much too cluttery for the "put everything away" training advice. My training theory on this is leave your life the way it is and train your dogs on what's expected of them. What I do with mine as puppies is supervise them like a hawk, when they're out and about. They don't get unsupervised freedom until they're trained. It's a lot of work for a few weeks, but it's well worth it to put in that lil' of effort, for a lifetime with a dog that's well behaved.

So mine have access to something appropriate to chew on at all times, but if they pick up something I don't want them to chew on (and I'll know cuz I'm watchin'em), I make an "Unt" sound to stop the behavior, then I give'em something I want them to chew on. Something that's way more appealing then a shoe too. A chewey or a kong with treats in it. That keeps'em occupied for awhile (solves the boredom factor too) and they get rewarded chewing on what you want them to. No yelling or hitting. It's all about the positive and it works. I haven't lost a pair of shoes yet. :)