my dog is trying to kill us

[Ellie_NY_chick]

I know how you feel Angie. I have three rescue house dogs, and I spoil them because they were unclaimed strays taken from kill shelters. Now they're fat little beggar boys. I'd be skewered here if I openly admitted to how spoiled they are.

BUT - if they were turning on the gas, they'd sleep in a crate for their own good and mine. I had a beagle once - they get bored easily. When I was a kid ours ate the bathroom door once when we were out for the day.

Not advice, just sharing thoughts...

 

[Indiana hens]

Sounds like the dog has the owners trained!

 

[Iceblink]

Smart Puppy! Sounds like she is bored.

While you are implementing a management system like you mentioned, you might want to look into more activities for her. A tired dog is a good dog, and just because you are home all day doesn't mean you have all day to entertain her. If she had other things to do it may not go to all the work of 'entertaining' herself in such dangerous ways.

1) Doggie daycare - if there is a good one in your area, check it out. It is a safe place during the day, the dogs get to play with other dogs, some daycares have training times so the dogs get mental stimulation as well as excersize. At the end of the day when you pick your dog up it will be too tired to climb all over the kitchen.

2) Interactive toys - kongs are a good option, my dog is a champion kong unstuffer so I freeze mushy food in there, squish it so big biscuits are wedged firmly, ect.
Another great interactive toy is a buster cube. It is a hollow cube with a spiral inside. You put the dogs kibble in the cube, and they have to push it all around the floor and the kibbles fall out a couple at a time. It's a little loud, but it keeps them entertained for a really long time.

3) The Sniffing Game! I used to play this with a beagle I petsat and it became her very most favorite activity ever. Here is how you play;

a) put the dog in a room or area where they are contained and can't follow you.
b) take their breakfast/dinner kibble (or treats if you want) and hide them one at a time all over the house. I don't hide them in anything as I don't want the dog to dig through anything to find treats.
c) let them out and show them the first couple kibbles. Praise them when they find them and encourage them to find the rest.
d) sit back and watch your dog wear themselves out! (sniffing is actually really hard work)

Small children are very useful 'treat hiders' if you happen to have any handy. OR you can play a variation where the children themselves hide and the dog finds them and to get it's kibbles.

If she (especially a beagle) is crated all the time, she will get bored and lonely and bay. That isn't fun for anyone, especially your neighbors. If you have to be gone and don't want to crate your dog, you could try blocking off access to certian rooms with a baby gate or x-pen. For example, your dog could have the run of the house, just not the kitchen......

 

[Justino]

my boxer dog did that and the whole house smelt of gas!!! my dog probably called your dog and told it to do it LOL

 

[Cats Critters]

CoyoteMagic wrote:
Beagles will eat themselves sick if they can get to food. We had a beagle/bassett mix that would take a bite out of the Christmas chocolates my Ma would set out. She yelled at us kids saying we were trying to see what was in it before we ate it. One night she caught the dog taking a nibble out of them!!!

My beagle is weird, where most beagle get fat easily are beagle will not gain weight, no madder what you feed him when we first got him as a 12 week old puppy he would eat and then vomit with in a half hour, he doesn't do that mush any more just every once in awhile, and still won't gain weight, he looks like he runs miles but spends most days in doors sleeping (when his not getting in trouble

)​

 

[Lil Chirp]

If you have one, maybe you can put the beagle out in the garage,instead of keeping the dog couped up in a crate.

Hope this helps.

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
I want to second this. We have 3 dogs but we crate only one of them. She was literally thrown out of her home at 3 months old because of her destructive "puppy" behavior. She eats everything - especially paper.

We rescued her and found she is very, very bad when left alone. We were putting her outside when we were gone during the day. We had a small dog run. She found nine hundred ways to get out of that thing. We eventually made a larger dog run in the barn. She climbed out. The fence was 10 foot high! We'd put her in it, go away, and when we'd get home she was on the front porch!

At 8 months we had her spayed. The vet was concerned - because she is very hyper - about her stitches so he recommended a crate. We got her one. Now she is in it every night and when we are gone.

It was the best thing ever! We don't have to worry about her eating something she shouldn't and our house is in one piece. Best of all, she likes it. When we go to bed, she goes right in, no problems.

Also, it has saved us a vet visit or two. She eats faster than the other two dogs. Mostly because I don't think she chews. She would get done eating and then try to take the other dogs' food.

She is a 50 pound boxer mix. Our other dogs are a chow/shep mix about 65 pounds and a 100 pound rotti. She wouldn't have lived very long let me tell you. So she eats in her crate and the other dogs have time to eat too.

Like I said, we have never had to crate a dog before and we don't crate our other dogs. But Daisy NEEDS it. She would not have lived very long without it...or at least I'm sure I would have spent thousands of dollars in vet bills by now.

It is your home and you can do whatever you want, but it seems to me your dog is showing you she needs more supervision when you are gone. Even if it is just a quick jaunt to the store. You're very lucky she hasn't eaten something poisonous. And the gas thing, wow, you could be homeless right now.