"Him & Her" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

We recently took in a rescued Harrier. She is 11 months old and
we are ( at least ) her third home. Her last one lasted around 10
days.

For the most part I am at home approximately 22 hours a day so
she gets plenty of attention and 3 or 4 walks a day relative to
other issues within the house. There are always several visitors
a day and she gets fussed over by all of them.

BUT, she is quite destructive. In the 2 weeks she has been with
us she has destroyed ............

1 pair of my wife's slippers, (while we were in)

3 pairs of my trainers (while we were in)

a box of medical supplies (I was out shopping, my wife was in
the dining room)

Countless hard plastic toys such as megabloks. She does seem to
have a bit of a thing for plastic.

the dining room carpet. She was put in the kitchen behind a child
gate at the weekend for 5 minutes while we got my wife in to her
ambulance. She tore the living daylights out of the carpet by
scratching under the gate. Whilst I am prepared to accept this
was an accident in her attempt to get out to us, it is hard to
ignore when paired with the other issues above.

We have had many dogs over the years and have *never* backed away
from one. Every rescue dog we have had has lived out their life
with us but she is getting close as I can't afford to keep
replacing footwear and carpets.

Any suggestions as to how I might moderate her behaviour welcome.

--
Regards,

Him & Her

Have you tried a rattle bottle? Basically it's a plastic bottle filled with
stones or something similar that makes a loud noise when you shake it and
you use it when the dog starts to do whatever it is that you find wrong,
after a little while the dog gets the association between the rattle and
what not to do. You can also use water. Just fill a cup with water and when
the dog starts off doing what you find wrong just throw the water in it's
face, after a few attempts it'll start to get the message. I used the water
when my dog was destructive, only took about 4 throws with the water and
that was the problem sorted. I'm not saying it'll work for all but it's
worth a go if you haven't tried it before. There will be people think that
it's cruel but it's only water. Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.

Redman