Destructiveness
Your house is wrecked daily by your dog. It seems to do it for sheer devilment because it leaves its bones and toys alone. Is there anything you could do about it?
Idle dogs and idle people always get into trouble. Train the dog—give it something to think about, and to tire it out. Then make an indoor kennel where it can be shut in when you are not there to watchit. If you must leave it free until cured, you could make it wear a Greyhound-type muzzle; it would soon get used to it just as greyhounds do. Male do this wrecking as a form of masturbation; castration is the cure for that.
Naturally, you must scold your dog and show him what he has done wrong. It is useless reasoning with a dog, as some oversentimental people do. Dogs are not clever enough to be reasoned with. They must understand they are really naughty and you are extremely angry with them. If the tearing up still continues, the dog must have a safe kennel outside where he may lose the habit and be able to return to the house.
In puppies, most of tearing up is due to teething, and to inquisitiveness—the puppy tries everything with his teeth.
As the male puppy gets sexually adult, he will pass through a stage of sexual frustration, and the tearing up of things is all part of this. The quickest cure for this is neutering. Male dogs are far more destructive than females.
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