thom.skinner

Thanks much Adrienne for all your excellent information and advice. Yes, the bed destruction was going on while our goldendoodle was under 1 year. He is now about 18 months (but we stopped trying to use a bed a few months ago). Actually, now he is a bit less destructive and I don't think he would actually use the bed. He appears to prefer the cool floor (or occasionally we find him curled up on his favorite sofa when we come down in the morning-we don't mind). He doesn't destroy much these days, except for the dog toys. He can even tear apart a Kong toy after a while. I do think he is board. He has a lot of energy and if he doesn't burn it off running outside then he seems to want to get into trouble at times. We are learning how to deal with him. We have a treadmill in the house that we use for keeping us fit, now we also use it with him to burn off some energy before going for walks. We find he is much easier to control on the leash if he had done some time on the treadmill before we go out. We are applying some of your other techniques around walks (he can appear aggressive when on the leash and approaching other dogs, but he is really a lover, not a fighter. He just doesn't like it when he is ignored. It takes time and patience but we are making progress.

I would love to train my dog to go to his bed when told (watched your video). The only problem is that any bed I purchase my Golden Doodle prefers to tear apart in the first ten minutes. Either I have to train him to stop tearing up his beds (we have tried 2) or perhaps I can train him to go to his crate (as opposed to a bed). He is very comfortable in his crate, it is a place he gores for security or we use it when he is too worked up, he always seems to calm down when in his crate. Your comments appreciated. How can I get him to stop destroying the beds I purchase? Thanks.