Kennel Boredom Strategies - Page 1

I was wondering if folks had any solutions to combat kennel boredom.

Usually, my husband works from home but when he travels out of province for business, our 8 month female GSD has to spend more time alone than she'd prefer in her outdoor 10x10 kennel. When bored, she's incredibly destructive- shreds or eats any bedding including straw (so now she has none), shredded a 100 lb stall mat (I couldn't even lift it but she dragged it across the pen before ultimately shredding it), rips the trim off her dog house (now replaced with steel), hurls her water bucket across the pen (even if it's wired to the fence), .... you get the point.

Here are the strategies that I'm using:

• She's exercised for 45 minutes before going in the kennel (she's sure not happy about getting up at 5 AM!).
• Give her breakfast in "puzzle toys" before I leave (Buster Cube, Kong wobbler, etc.)
• Hired a dog walker to walk her for an hour in the afternoon to break up her day while I'm at work.
• Rotate what toys she has in her kennel.

I understand that she's not happy about being left alone but this is the reality of the situation when my husband is away.

Here's a picture taken this week of her kennel (it really snowed this week!).

Seems a little more like anxiety rather than boredom, if she is getting brain teaser toys and exercise. I have not used the thunder shirt or whatever it's called but people I know love it or bashit so it's hard to say. It's supposed to help with anxiety or help calm a reactive dog. I have thought about trying it on my GSD who wraps is huge bod around me when it storms heavily. I'm really interested to see what more experienced dog trainers/behavorists have to say on this topic. Maybe someone reading this has tried the shirt.

Hmm ...I've never heard of the thundershirt ($36) - http://www.thundershirt.com/ . My first thought is that she'd eat it but I could be wrong. My husband (grew up on a farm with livestock) is still stunned that she ate the straw in her dog house and the stall mat (black rubber so must have tasted awful).

 

there is no way i could have a doghouse with a flat roof in my kennels!!!!  my dogs would be on it and over the kennel in 3 seconds flat!!!  i would definately have to put a panel over the top.

pjp

My female, Danca, was a little girl--about 55 pounds--but she would tear every bucket off the fence, she ate half a Dogloo and wrestled a rubber stall matt and chewed off a corner of it when she was bored.

So to me, your girl sounds like a dog with a lot of energy and intelligence to "burn" -- when you exercise her for 45 minutes, can you spend 5-10 of those minutes doing some "brain" exercise. Have her search for a toy or ask her to something that makes her think--for example, you could teach her to stand on a brick and turn in circles with her hind end while her front stays still (useful for heeling later on)--but it doesn't matter what--the idea is to engage her brain for a few minutes a day. Make her search the yard for portions of her food--hide it in a new place or three every day. Teach her to find your car keys anywhere in the house--it wouldn't need to take much more than 5 minutes a day, but you'd be surprised how much "brainergy" it can burn--some GSDs just really need the mental interaction in addition to physical exercise.

http://www.absolutedogtraining.info/perch-training-part-1/

 

Then, as the weather gets warmer, do something like take a Kong and put apple slices and carrots and kibble and peanut butter in it and freeze it. You could also feed her a portion of her daily food as meat chunks--chicken or something like stew beef chunks--frozen in a block of ice--kind of like what they do for zoo animals to entertain them.

 

She's a digger not a jumper ... that said, my husband has built a roof for the pen. He just hasn't put it on.

Blackthorn,.....you are a genius!!!! why didn't i think of that...ice block with food in there, except I would have to freeze my tennis balls in there and somehow make sure they don't float to the top...but i bet that will keep my girl busy for hours...LOL

another suggestion: get a cat....

My neighbors complained that my dog started barking during the day...so..i put a video camera on her pen to find out why....u wont believe this but my cat brings some rodent that is still alive and drops it in front of the cage...dog goes crazy, rodent freaks out..cat keeps rodent close to cage or goes off chasing it and brings it back....by the time i come home dog is exhausted from barking and running back and forth, so she is nice and tired when I get home and she just wants to eat and go lay on her bed...cat always walks around like she has no idea why everyone is so worked up...and i find a dead rodent near back door...

@BlackthornGSD- Thank-you so much for your helpful suggestions!

Senta is 55 lbs (25 kg) and full of energy! At 5 AM, we race around the 400 meter (.25 miles) track at the school near my house, we play games (mostly me hurling a toy in a snow bank for her to find- her favourite game), and practice some obedience (she loves training). I think you are dead on about burning mental energy- when my husband is working from home, he takes breaks throughout the day to work on her obedience training. I love the idea of freezing food in blocks!

@LadyFrost - Very funny but I'm not surprised. Cats are always evil geniuses. 

BlackthornGSd, I use the food / toys frozen in a cube for my dogs & it really works. I also use plastic cups fill them with water add treats & freeze them, you'll basically have the mini version of a large cube.

On my kennels I attach a dog run cable across the top. The part you normally use as the leash for your dog that pulls along the dog cable, I rap around a very heavy duty dog rope toy. My dogs play with this for hours. They prefer the rope toys with the tire at the end. So they basically play tug a war by themselves.

Also hide stuff Kong / toys around their kennels. Place them on top og their dog houses behind them, under a gravel, etc..

Place new objects in kennel that are stuff with toys or food such as; car tire / pvp pipe / milk jug etc.. But all are not easy to access.

Alternate between novel entertainment objects such as; kiddie pools / sand boxes / kiddie pool filled with balls, etc.. 

My dogs go nuts to race inside their kennels every morning for all their fun & must work to get their food most of the morning.

hey u sound like a really good owner may i ask how much total exercise she gets a day? i use to have a dog like this a long time ago it was not a working dog and was exercised very hard my new working dog does not do this