Hi, I have a sibe/German sheppard cross called Jess, she is 1 year old now, I love her to bits but she has been the biggest handful of any dog I have known, she exibits a lot of sibe behavour, she doesnt bark, very playful and docile unless rattled, she hunts ( cant let her off the lead , i learnt that one :) ) but she is extremley inteligent, she was an outside dog when I got her at 8 weeks, but I had her house trained in 2 days!!!! but I can not stop her destroying the house when I am not present, she will do as I say sit, stop, come ( this one depends on how excited she is :) ) etc, but no matter how many times I tell her somthing is wrong she goes back and does it again. she is very head strong and if im not in the house she is in charge!

Ok this is all cool, after all this is the nature of her and I wouldnt change it ( too much) , but what can I do to stop her destroying the house, she digs through wood doors, takes bites out of corner walls!! pulls up the carpets, has eaten a laptop computer! and a washing machine! in short she has cost me in excess of £5000 this year alone, in house repairs, it was funny at first to come home and see this tiny little fluffy pup surounded by un parralled distruction, but now its getting beyond a joke.

My friend who is a breader of both breads ( Jess was a cross bread accident ) says keep her outside, I am not prepared to do this as she is my friend and the perfect dog whilst I am around, If i wanted a pet for outside I would have got a cat.

So I was thinking, would having another dog around help keep her attention whilst She is alone at home, maybe they would chew eachother instead of the house, she should be coming into season for the first time very soon, so possibly this would be a good time to slip a puppy under her before she is spayed, or maybee she should have pups ( 6 Jess' eating my house! argh!!! ) any one with knowledge of sibes please advise. The last thing I want is 2 dogs tearing up the house together.

What bread would she be happiest with? should it be a sibe? what bread should I have to stud with her if thats an option?

Thanks
Gav

It depends how long you leave her for, but I would recommend a crate if its just short periods - its been a godsend for me with my destructive dane! If its for long periods though I would keep her outside. More folk will be along soon with more breed-specific advice - I just wanted to say that I can empathise with you and the destructiveness - I spend 40 mins yesterday filling the walls! :)

hi,
how long is she left alone for? if you are leaving her alone for more than a few hours than understandably she is going to become bored and then destructive as she looks for something to amuse herself with, that will be the sibe in her. my middle sibe was very very destructive as a youngster, even leaving him uncrated to have a shower would result in a shredded sofa. you could try a crate if it is only for a few hours, if longer then build her a kennel run outside or you will have no house left.

i would NOT recommend breeding from her, there are enough pure breed sibes and GSD desperate for new homes without you adding to the problem by creating more cross breeds, have her spayed a few months after her next season.

another dog may keep her amused and prevent her chewing, but she could always teach the new pup to chew and you could have 2 chewing your house to bits, especially if you got a pure siberian. she may settle down in time as she is only 1, that is still very immature for a sibe, they dont reach maturity until a lot later than most breeds.
do you try leaving her with activity type toys? try a stuffed kong and a buster cube type of toys. when i had just the 1 sibe i would leave him with several of these toys and he would keep himself amused with these.

hope this helps,
kelly

kelly, whats a buster cube?

have a look at this

buster cube
kelly

Hi,
It sounds as though she is being destructive because she's anxious at being left alone. If you set a video camera up you can watch to see what she does. A dog that is upset will be tearing the house up the minute you have gone. A dog that is bored will usually be ok for a little while, and then start being destructive.
Having said that, a cross like that will be extremely active, and you need to do more with her than lead walking. If you really can't let her off the lead (why don't you enrol in a good training club to see if you can teach her a good recall?) then you'll need to tire her out with lots of mental exercise.
Something like tracking could be useful for her, or maybe getting her to do something like working trials.
If she is scared of being alone, just keeping her busy and occupied when you are with her will not be enough, it will help because if she has a lot of pent up energy then she will a lot more nervous.
How long do you leave her? If you work full time, you are going to have a big job on your hands to help her, and will almost certainly need to hire a dog walker or a pet sitter.
Getting another dog will not help the situation, if you get a pup before you get this problem under control then you're going to end up with two dogs with the same problem.
It is a problem that can be sorted, but it will take a fair amount of effort on your part.
You might find it easier if you get some help from a good trainer or behaviourist, they can be very useful as long as you pick the right one. You need someone who will firstly establish whether the problem is anxiety or boredom, and then help you to fix that problem by tackling the root cause of the behaviour.
You could consider a crate in the meantime if you really wanted to, but your dog should be properly introduced to it, not in there for more than a couple of hours at a time, and not used as a subsitute for showing the dog that she doesn't need to worry about being left alone.
Good luck,
Jo

Thanks all for your replies, I have to leave her at home for 8 hours at a time as i work full time, I am currently looking for professional training, then I will be able to get someone to walk her, at the moment you have to be very strong to hold her on a lead. I got her a king kong yesterday and she seems to like it.

Because of the lengh of time that she is on her own I would not want to cage her.

I would love to be able to exercise her off the lead but she chases down anything that runs, including bikes and cars! she never hurts anyone or anything, but she scares people and dogs and could be a danger to herself. I will be able to sort this out with professional training I hope? I have tried myself with a training lead and followed various guides, but alas I am useless :)

She would love to work as she is always chasing and hearding, she finds all sorts on her travels on the moors, she escaped once whilst camping, pulled her screw peg right out of the ground, she was gone, came back with horses, sheep and bulls, loads of them, hell knows where she found them but she was in her element, hence she doesnt get off the lead anymore unless under very safe circumstances ( no other dogs, children, elderly, live stock etc ).

Thanks all
Gav.

hi gav,
it is no wonder she is being destructive if she is being left alone for 8 hours a day. i would not recommend getting a pup either to keep her company, as you can not leave a puppy alone for such a long time, nor can you crate her for such a long time either. for her own safety i would build her a secure run outside and get someone in to at least check on her while she is alone.

have you tried using a halti or gentle leader on her? i find these very useful when walking my sibes. mine are worked in harness so i dont want them to walk to heel, i want them to and encourage them to pull, but on ordinary walks find a halti useful as it means i can walk all 3 at once and not get dragged over. if you get her used to this at least someone could walk her during the day.
does the breeder not run their dogs in harness? you could try this with her once the weather is cooler, this would help her burn off all that excess energy and give her mental stimulation.

also i would keep her on lead when exercising her, you will find it difficult if not impossible to train out the sibe instinct to run and the sibe prey drive. she has not hurt herself or anything yet, but if she is allowed to run free of lead then this could very easily change.
kelly