Will it ever get better?

[Sofadog]

I’ve posted about our second dog before - a collie/Breton cross. He’s been very challenging as you might expect but despite all of our many efforts he continues to get worse and I’m now in tears this evening over him.

One issue is that over the last few weeks he has become destructive and I could cry over the things I’ve had to replace. We puppy proofed when he was little and gradually introduced out stuff back in, redirected, rewarded him etc. He was gaining trust and generally we thought he was balancing out behaviour wise or it at least seemed that way for a couple of weeks.

He gets 2hrs of exercise a day - off lead and sniffy walks, puzzle toys, we work through his basic training, snuffle matts etc. He has lots of safe toys and stuff he can chew on with a variety of textures etc.

We try and keep things calm as he is over excitable.

We have an older dog and due to his behaviour we have never left them alone in the house, not even in separate parts. It’s hard work someone always being in and not even being able to nip out or there be a cross over of even 30mins of someone coming home.

Everyone keeps telling me he must be over the worst but he has never improved and things just seem to go the other way.

I feel like I’ve had enough. Our older dog was also a challenge but not to this extent. I look at him and I just see a mistake.

Please help!

In what way is he destructive?

How old is he?

is he getting enough sleep/ down time?

He’s 14 months. Destructive as in chewing/tearing up things but other than his mix of toys. I can’t turn my back for a minute without packing everything away. I popped to the loo and he pulled a laptop charger off a table and chewed the end of it, he pulled a dress off of a indoor aired and ripped the sleeve off it. He is constantly trying to pull at carpet fibres so I end up putting him on a lead in the house.

He sleeps all night and dozes in the day between walks and in the evening.

When does this destruction take place? Is he unsupervised at the time?

Sorry, cross posted. Does he only do this when you leave the room?

He attempts it if we are there but we redirect, obviously I can’t watch him every minute of the day but at the moment even 30s is enough for him to do some damage.

If we weren’t doing all that we are I would say he’s bored but he can’t possibly be 😞

The destructiveness is just part of it. It feels like he reached a new level of crazy this past month. When awake he is bouncing off the walls.

Sounds very challenging to live with. How is his impulse control when you're out? Does he recall immediately? Does he know "leave"? Does he have manners around other dogs?
At home, does he know "settle"?
Have you had him since he was a young pup?
It sounds like some foundations to learning are missing...
Or, he hasn't found his "off switch" (settle) reliably on cue as even in the teenage stage you should be able to say to settle, step out the room & not expect destruction on your return.

His recall is actually fairly decent and he follows if we tell him this way etc. He generally doesn’t run off over to other dogs - tends to follow older dog who is doing as asked. He pulls a bit on lead but that is improving.

We’ve done the basic obedience course, bronze and he’s up for the next round soon. He will do a settle if asked but it’s not exactly calm, he thinks that’s a game as well! That he passed his bronze award tells me it’s all in there or some of it is even if he doesn’t always demonstrate it (he had to stay for a full minute for example as part of that). I can ask him to sit and wait for his food - he will sit there for as long as I say until I release him. He goes in his crate at night when you say go to your crate and sleeps there but will not tolerate it in the day.

By 14months he should be at gold level really so perhaps up the training to get his mental stimulation up, mental tiredness will make them more tired than any exercise can.

does he have access to chews like yak bars, coffee sticks, antlers, horns etc so he can get a chewing fix? They are all very long lasting

when you say he dozes during the day is he switching off properly and sleeping? I’d possibly say it sounds like he isn’t sleeping enough from what you’ve said

Sounds like he's got the basics then but doesn't find doing calm rewarding enough as he can self reward & get lots of attention / redirection etc when he's going crazy / stealing / being destructive.
So, the challenge is to make a settle rewarding. Firstly practise when he's physically & mentally tired with a high reward rate (high value food) & calm praise whilst he stays in position. Then briefly step out the room leaving someone there to reward in your absence moving towards him being left alone briefly.
It does get better - he's possibly feeling his hormones & testing his boundaries.
You'll have a wonderful dog when you make it through & your bond will be even stronger due to the work you've put in. Don't give up!

He has both the antlers and yak chews, tug toys, rubbery ball type toys, rope toys, and stuffed animal type toys.

He often has little dream barks and snores which makes me think he’s in a deeper sleep? He’s lay down now snoring his head off.

Will look to up training, we got him at 20 weeks in November so he was slightly older and it was after Christmas before we got him booked onto a course so aware he is a bit behind in that regard but at the moment it feels a bit like when we brought him home and he had no awareness or manners.

Have a look at Susan Garrett impulse control / crate games to help him learn about making the right choice & controlling himself

You’d usually do bronze followed by silver and gold no need for a break?
that will give you goals to work and the trainer can give support on how to settle at home
do they use the chew toys? If not play around until you find ones they like as chewing can help them settle too

He's still very young and bang in the middle of his teenage phase which is when it feels the worst.

I would go back to puppy proofing for now.

Yep so he passed his bronze last month, silver starts next week. Did puppy feb into March and due to back to back covid in our house we missed the first silver intake we had a chance at so there was a slight gap but we’ve kept practising in the meantime and looked to see what’s next so we can build so for example his stay needs to be two minutes now so have been working on that in the meantime with everything else,

What do you do when he grabs something he shouldn't?
Maybe he needs the rules to be more clear. Maybe he is a little bored & wanting interaction.
If it were me, at his age, if he moved to grab something he shouldn't I would use a loud clear "NO ", in such a voice that anyone would quake in their boots & think the sky would fall in. Certainly wouldn't take it from him & replace with his toy.
Your "NO " should cause him to stop /drop it. Give him a second to think, then ask him for a "sit" which you can give a "good boy" in your "nice voice". Then tell him to get his toy ( don't get it for him) & you can play as reward for his "clever stuff".
If he doesn't know "drop / leave", teach him. If he doesn't know " fetch tuggy", teach him.

If you see him "looking for mischief" interrupt it with a "Fido sit" in firm voice, then tell him to fetch his toy. He needs to learn more acceptable ways of getting your attention / having a game / self reward. The goal is that he brings his toy to you instead of stealing / destruction, so you must reinforce that every time by playing tug/ having a game. You can't ever be too busy or he'll return to stealing.
Good luck

Just to be clear, teach drop / leave / fetch separately, not when he's doing naughty things. Loads & loads of praise & games & crazy stuff when he gets it right.