Eating his bedding???

[bunkerboy]

Hi! I am new here and am so happy to have found someplace to share with and ask questions about my labradoodle. I am a first time doodle owner...and actually a first time dog owner. Our Bunker is 7 months old and we love this new addition to our family! Here's my question...Bunker is in a crate at night and when we are not home. He loves his crate, does great in there, and goes in there even when he doesn't have to sometimes. The problem is I want him to be comfy in there and not have to sleep on the hard plastic, but every kind of bedding I put in there he eats! He rips open any kind of bed with stuffing in it, so then I just put a blanket in and in a matter of a day it looks like swiss cheese! Any suggestions???

[Jasper'sMomma]

Jasper, my 9 month old does the same thing! I have tried several different types of beds for his crate. We have settled on a fleece blanket from ikea. We folded it so that it is thick and he stopped chewing on it after he was about 8 months old...there are little circular holes in it!! We Have also started putting a nylabone in there for him to chew on...its large and very hard so we know he won't choke on pieces of it while we are gone.

Good luck finding a material that doesn't tempt him! My dog trainer said he should grow out of this by the time he's a year old...

[Moe]

Could you try spraying the bedding with that bitter apple spray? Not sure if it would work.

[browndog]

We had a different sort of problem with bedding in the crate but the solution to our problem might just work for your situation too. Not sure what kind of crate you have so this might or might not work, but we have the metal wire mesh kind of crate, not the plastic one. We tried having a blanket in her crate at night or a pillow, but she would just scratch it as if she were digging and this would wake me in the middle of the night as her nails would just be scratching against the plastic tray at the bottom! So I tried all sorts of things like a thicker blanket, a bigger pillow etc but she still managed to "dig" through it and wake me with her scratching/digging. Finally in my sleep-deprived state I had an idea! I went to the carpet store the next day (crate tray in hand) and asked them if they could cut a piece of carpet the exact size to fit the bottom of her crate tray and set it in place. I came back to the store an hour later and they had cut the exact perfect size and used the installation heavy duty double-sided carpet tape and secured it to the bottom of the tray. We then put a blanket on top of the carpet and put it to the test. Sure enough, it worked! When she we would scratch/dig at her blanket, she would push the blanket aside but then just end up scratching on the carpet beneath and the carpet would not budge, so no more scratching sounds! Yay!! A restful night for all. Anyway, I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of the idea and hopefully this may help someone else out there! It cost a total of $10 for the carpet piece and the installation and boy was it worth it! I'm wondering if your doodle might not chew if there was just a thick carpet stuck to the bottom instead of a blanket or pillow.

[Julie B.]

browndog: What a great idea! The only thing I would add is to make sure the carpet is cut, not looped. Our old dog got her nails stuck under our berber carpet and pulled out rows of it!

[browndog]

good point! That's right, we just asked to see any of the scrap pieces they had from end of rolls and chose the one that didn't have the looped style carpet weave so her nails wouldn't catch. Hope this tip helps someone out there as it sure helped us!