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Twice in the past month my dog has gotten into my stamp room and chewed up wood mounted stamps! I don't know what has gotten in to her, she has never done this before. I have been spending more time in my room in the past couple of months, but she is always in there with me. She never bothers anything while I am there and after the first incident, I reprimand her if I catch here sniffing at anything. Yesterday I was gone for 6 hours and got home just before we were to leave for dinner. I fed both dogs and took them for a quick walk and then left for an hour and a half. When I got back, there was a chewed up wooden block right by the front door! I know I shut the door to my stamp room before I left, but she can open it even if it is shut tight. I have been buying bulk lots of stamps on eBay to donate to my local senior center and fortunately, the stamps she got where from a box of them that was on a lower shelf. Maybe she is smelling other animals from their previous homes or something because she has never bothered any of my stuff before. Any ideas on how to discourage her from doing this again? I sometimes leave stamps and other items on my desk and I don't want to have to be worried about her grabbing them!
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I'd love to give you an answer you'd like but there's only one -- put them away.
It's a little spooky that I just, in the last 10 minutes, told my daughter and her friend about our philosophy that there are no "bad" pets... just .. well, not 'bad' owners. . . . but -
If you don't kitten proof, dog proof, whatever-it-is proof, and train where trainable, then animals will do things we wish they didn't but we can't blame them.
I wonder if part of it is that you are spending more time there, you give "attention" to the stamps, and then you went out .... left her :( . Maybe she's acting out? And maybe there is a scent on the used blocks.
I'd find a way to keep the room inaccessible or just put everything away.
Something is stressing poor puppy. My only suggestion would be to put the stamps somewhere she can't reach or barricade the door with something that you can easily move but she can't. Mine hasn't chewed any wood mounts (yet), but she has chewed up a couple pencils and paint brush handles. She usually gets into trouble when we're not paying enough attention to her... spoiled little (cute) chihuahua.
Yes, the obvious answer is to put everything away. It's just that this is a new behavior for her. She will be 3 yrs old this month and has never bothered with my stamps before. She could just be acting out, we have had a lot of changes in our household this year with my daughter leaving for college in Sept., my son moving 600 miles away the end of Jan. and my dad passing away two days later. So now it is just me and the dogs all day and it is unusual for me to be gone for that many hours straight. I don't allow her in the room during the day when I am not in there. I guess I will have to put something in front of the door when I leave so that she can't get to the door handle. She is a smart dog, so hopefully she will get the message to stay out of there when I am not with her.
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Yes, the obvious answer is to put everything away. It's just that this is a new behavior for her. She will be 3 yrs old this month and has never bothered with my stamps before. She could just be acting out, we have had a lot of changes in our household this year with my daughter leaving for college in Sept., my son moving 600 miles away the end of Jan. and my dad passing away two days later. So now it is just me and the dogs all day and it is unusual for me to be gone for that many hours straight. I don't allow her in the room during the day when I am not in there. I guess I will have to put something in front of the door when I leave so that she can't get to the door handle. She is a smart dog, so hopefully she will get the message to stay out of there when I am not with her.
And is this her in your avatar? Adorable!!!!
It sounds like cat_woman had it right ~ those are a lot of stressers for her and for you, too. She's probably picking up on vibes you may not even realize you're giving off.
I wish you all well (two dogs, right?), and so nice that you have each other's company!
Sounds like maybe separation anxiety. I have seen advertised this vest like thing for dogs who get stressed because of storms and such; Bed Bath and Beyond carries them. You might want to look into using that for when you leave the house.
Perhaps you could try spraying the stamps with a strong scent.
You can buy commercial animal deterent sprays with citronella from the hardware for the garden but we found a strong solution of lavender disinfectant in a spray bottle worked well when our pup was getting into areas we didn't want her to.
Alternatively, can you get any type of childproofing for your door handle? I know there is something to stop round handles being turned.
Of, if you have a lever handle, perhaps the mechanism can be reversed in some way so that it must be lifted to open it, rather than pulled down.
From a dog whisperer POV, don't make a fuss of her when you leave.
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If we were away for a few hours and didn't want our dog to get into a particular room we used a child's stair gate - not sure if you have these in the US but they fit within doorways and stop little ones from getting into or out of that room. Called stair gates as they are usually put across stairs to stop toddlers going up or down stairs on their own!
I don't know what to tell you about why or how to fix the problem. However, I do have a stamp that says "BAD DOG, NO BISCUIT" if you want to borrow it. LOL
Ha ha Cainp, I could use that stamp! That is my Stella in my avatar and she really isn't a bad dog. I had not really thought of how all the changes in our life could be affecting her and it makes sense that she would be affected by it as well. Thank you all for your input, I used a barrier when we Went out earlier and no problems. I think I am going to get a spray of some sort also. I do think that she ventures in the room because that is where I am a lot during the day, but I think something is attracting her to the new stamps coming from other homes. The only other thing that she has chewed since she was a puppy was a Britta water bottle with the filter in it. She got that right out from under the tree this year, unwrapped it and chewed the plastic lid right off! Then in February when I went to visit my son, the night before we were leaving, I tossed one of the Britta bottles on top of my open suitcase. We left for a bit and when we got back she had found that bottle and destroyed it. Must be the charcoal in the filter that attracts her.
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Bad dog chewing wood blocks!
