Don't know if anyone else has experienced this before but Inca is now 11 weeks old and has developed a love of pulling up the lawn with her teeth. She isn't chewing or eating the grass but just merrily removing as much turf as she can. I appreciate our garden is not going to look the same now we have a dog but I would like to try and stop this behaviour if possible. I have tried distraction methods with high value treats but she just returns to ripping as soon as she can. I also tried ignoring it to see if it was an attention thing but she was quite happy to continue. Any suggestions on what to do?
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Meg does the same. She loves it and is very determined and powerful. I let her do it elsewhere (we have a field), but I guess that's not easy for all. So I guess its quite normal so hopefully some others and add some better ideas
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Hmm, that's a tricky one. Ripping up lawn is obviously something she finds extremely fun. Is there any way you can limit access to the lawn? Supervised play outside only? Fencing off the lawn area? I'd also be giving her lots of sacrificial objects (insides of toilet rolls, cereal boxes, secondhand stuffed toys with hard bits removed...) that she is allowed to destroy. Most pups do move on from the 'I must destroy all I see before me' phase. I dare say that you will get your nice lawn back again (eventually).
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn We went through this stage with Molly. I found she had a couple of preferred spots, so I sprinkled them with dog deterrent and she left them alone. She still loves grass though and flings herself full length on any patch she finds when we are out for a walk.
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Thanks for your comments guys, as much as anything it's good to know that other dogs behave the same. I think we will just have to stay very vigilant with her. We have plenty of other stuff that she can trash so will keep putting that under her nose. They have an amazing ability to seek out the items they are not allowed to play with though!
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Very normal several of our pups over the years have done this, some grow out of it some go on to be best diggers in the world and have meant no trips down the garden in the dark for fear for breaking an ankle in the pits !
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn My dog was a terror in the garden as a pup. She especially loved the pond and would drag pondweed out of it with huge enjoyment... It just meant we never left her in the garden alone for more than about a minute. Probably good advice anyway, considering the mischief and dangerous behaviour they can get up to very quickly! And the digging, chewing and pulling stopped by around five or six months of age.
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn When Lady wasn't digging a hole in the lawn she was de-potting the pot plants, or chomping the low hanging branches off the apple trees! ;D It stops naturally after a certain age.
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn I dug up the lawn and put slate chips down. He still digs in them, but they just rake back into place easily enough.
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Gypsy tried this several times. I simply didn't let her. I distracted her with toys or, if she was determined, brought her inside. She has stopped now (now she keeps trying to pull the weeds out of the pond!)
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Harley likes to dig.......but only in one spot ??? We just rake it over periodically
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn Thank you so much for all the comments. Very reassuring and she is already starting to realise that what she is doing is pretty normal. 90% of the time she's an angel but she's definitely a devil dog for the other 10%!
Re: Puppy ripping up the lawn I used to call it "weeding the lawn". Our boy loved doing it. After a while I gave up -- the garden looked awful for about a year. Snowie also LOVED tugging on plants no matter the size, and those that were newly planted were ripped out with delight -- two pomegranate trees and three daisy bushes. The delicious monster was his favourite for ripping and shredding. And the palm tree was a great challenge. I was only too happy that he was entertaining himself outside; we were very fortunate to have very little damage inside and this I put down to his having an outlet for his desire to chew and tug outside the house. We were, however, very vigilant inside and made sure he was supervised and kept occupied -- I spent the first year of his life constantly trying to find things to occupy him with! But one thing that we didn't realise for a few months was that he had tapeworm and his eating our tree fern was directly related his discomfort with the worms. No sooner had he been dewormed and the tree fern was able to grow big and lush. He does tug on the fronds now -- at 2.5 years old -- occasionally, and those times I think he needs help with his tummy. He also eats grass every day, and I am told this is normal by the vet. At 2.5 years old, it seems his gardening days are over and our garden is restored. There is hope. Unless you're planning on getting another puppy.
