My Dog Eats Everything(and I Mean It)

[AnimeLover12]

My dog Trigger is only 7 years old(dog years), but she is such a pain!
Just today, she snuck into my room, and chewed up my MP3 player!
I understand my door can be easily opened, and it's getting fixed today. Although, we know she eats; pencils, undergarments, lint, tissues(even used ones!), plastic toys, a wooden chinese parasol shredded, erasers, pens and markers; plastic bags and paper towels.

My dog is Black lab-Huskey mix. She's a girl. We didn't name her Trigger. She has a Black Kong.(She tore up the red one)
We walk her regularly, but my Mom is sick right now; so she can't walk her. My sister and I can't train her like she can. She gets tons of playtime. My Mom works in the morning until noon, my sister and I come home around 3pm. We try and teach her tricks like; sit to go outside, bark when people come to the door, etc. We all fail, she hasn't really learned a thing.

Please help my family and I deal with this problem!

 

[southerngirl]

Sorry to hear about your mom being sick, I hope she gets better soon.
The reason she's chewing is probably because she's bored. How long do you walk her? She might not be getting enough exercise. On your introduce yourself thread I posted videos of loose leash walking. You mentioned in your post on another thread she is hyper so she needs an hour walk or you could pick up running like I did. You can look up videos on youtube that will tell you how to teach a trick. If you start doing at least one trick session every day for 5-10min(however long you can do or Trigger can pay attention, it could help her chewing.

 

[AnimeLover12]

I suppose we really don't pay enough attention to her. She always tries chewing her Kong on our lap when we sit down, like she wants to play. I can't take up running to help her until she walks good enough. Mom says she's perfect in our backyard, but when we go out the gate she turns into crazy-Trigger.
I've watched some Youtube videos about loose leash walking and tricks, and I still don't know how to properly teach her to walk loose leash. Also, the weather is getting colder so time to teach her is running out.
Thank you so much for helping me.

 

[southerngirl]

What I did was whenever Missy(my dog) pulled I would become a tree(standstill and do not move) than I would call her over to me when she came I would click and treat, than continue walking. Keep stopping and calling her back to you Every time she stops. Yes, it can be a pain, annoying and you might feel like it'll never work, but it does it just takes time. It'll be worth it when you realize that she's getting better. Does that make sense and did you see my videos that I posted on your introduce yourself thread? You and your sister could make a schedule such as Monday you take her on walks and your sister does a trick training session and you guys can play with her together Tuesday your sister walks Trigger and you do the trick training session. This way she will get more attention.

 

[AnimeLover12]

Yes, the videos will help us a lot! All we have to do is get a clicker, and we are going to the store tonight anyhow. Thank you so much for helping me with walking Trigger.

 

[Amateur]

Just a thought .. the videos are great but if you still need a bit of help and if you can afford it - can you enrol in a dog obedience class ? They can teach you and your family skills on how to teach your dog. Learning how to relate to your dog will lead you to to being able to teach many different things. And yeah it sounds like your dog would love a bit more play time with you. But also try stuffing the Kong with treats and even freezing it with stuff in it can provide the dog with something to occupy his spare time without you.

 

[MaryK]

Try working in your garden with on close heel work. I used a treat, hidden in my hand, to get Ra Kismet (my dog) to understand and learn close heel work. I would ask for close heel, and at first walk just a few steps then click/treat. Rinse and repeat for a while then increase the number of steps - gradually- until Trigger will do quite a distance before clicking and treating. This helps when you walk her, as you can allow a loose lead, but if she pulls too much become a tree as suggested by Southerngirl, and then ask for close heel.

Also, does really sound like she's bored and wants more play time with you all. Rug up, buy her a good dog coat, and unless it's really freezing (well below zero), still go out for walks. Provided they're warm dogs don't mind cold weather.

With a dog training school be VERY sure they ONLY USE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT TRAINING, go down and check out their classes before enrolling. Any sign of slip/choke collars DO NOT sign up. But finding a good Positive Reinforcement Training school will, as Amateur has said, help you all to learn and understand how to train trigger.

It takes time though and a lot of patience, so don't give up.