I was hoping someone would have some solid suggestions for me. My dogs are well crate trained, but lately my 1 yr old ridgeback has been chewing up his beds while we're at work. I think he's getting frustrated from less exercise due to the winter here in Ohio. Tough to get him exercise while slipping on ice. We've tried coming back for lunch to let him out, and many other things.

My hope isn't to get active ideas to get him to stop, but more along the lines of a product that he would just lay on and not be tempted to chew. Would just a rubber mat provide enough padding for a semi-large breed dog? Any type of cloth will be ripped to shreds I think. Anyone else have this issue and switch to something that stopped it? Thanks for any help.

Can't he just lay on nothing?

No more bed. The hard floor won't hurt him. We learned to hard way too.

First tried those "mooshie" million tiny foam ball pillows and it looked like a blizzard when we got home from work. Solid foam turds for a week! Then a pillow~tore it up had cottonball turds. The just a towell. Had blue string turds. that's when we finally broke down and said no more.

Now we just let him have free reign of the house and he's just fine.

Had the same problem with my 10 month old lab and after three beds I got fed up with it and now she doesn't get a bed. If it's gonna be cold I'll throw a towel or sheet in there but for the most part there is nothing in there that she can chew up and eat besides a rawhide bone. Until she gets past the stage of destroying everything she gets her mouth on, she'll get no more beds.

Tough love is your friend.

The crate bottom is hard plastic. I thought that's terrible on their joints over time?

It's a dog. Treat it like a dog. The hard plastic liner will be just fine to lay on. My dogs get by just fine and are perfectly happy.

The dog will chew up a plastic mat too. I vote for leaving it empty until you think you can trust him again. After that, try an old towel. If that lasts a while, you can get a new bed.

I've had the same problem and found the same solution as the previous posters.

Have you tried that bitter apple stuff? Spray it on a piece of cardboard, should work. If that doesn't, get a bunch of Tabasco and coat the cardboard in that.

Our previous dog chewed up the bed in his crate once. That was the last time he had a bed.

We have blankets in the crate for our current dog, but she usually pushes them aside and just lays on the plastic.

I'd say if your dog is chewing up the bed then take away the bed.

Ours has an igloo dog house with hay for bedding. He loves it. We paid $$$$ for one of those supposedly indestructable beds from Orvis. Took him two days to totally obliterate it. We boxed up the remains, sent it back to Orvis, and got a complete refund, though.

I would be careful with bitter spray for dogs though. My dog and quite a few others that i know seem to go absolutely wild over the bitter spray. They went after what i sprayed it on like it was bacon grease. Luckily my dog has since grown out of chewing crap up.

our dog would chew the corners of his bed, so we got rid of it a long time ago. We put a blanket in his crate on top of the hard plastic bottom. He chews up the blanket every now and then, but it was only $5, so it doesn't matter to me if he does or not. An old towel or tshirt would work as well.

Looks like your answer is in the ad at the bottom of the page.

Edit: Apparently the ads rotate. The one I clicked on was www.doggysnooze.com

Also, Kuranda makes an elevated bed to fit into crates. It isn't cushy, but it gets them off of the hard plastic if that is a big concern.

[This message has been edited by Stinky T (edited 2/9/2011 11:28a).]

My ridgeback hated his bed when the door is closed. But if it's open he will stay in his kennel and wouldn't chew it. Weird.....

No dog bed = problem solved.

Now if he is like a buddy's dog, and eats his kennel from the inside out then your up shet creek.

I appreciate the responses. We'll go with no bed for my baby boy for a while and see how it goes. We'll try one or two of the suggestions here soon though.

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The dog will chew up a plastic mat too. I vote for leaving it empty until you think you can trust him again. After that, try an old towel. If that lasts a while, you can get a new bed.

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This is great advice. Our golden chewed up every bed, towel, sheet, etc when he was that age. Then he grew up, matured, got a girlfriend and settled down. He's now almost 3 and he doesn't chew up his mats anymore.

We had the same problem with our boxer.

Finally after returning 2 beds, the wife brought home some "bitter apple spray" from petsmart.

I thought it was a joke, but it actually works. He liked cables too, sprayed those, and haven't had anymore problems.

http://kuranda.com/

We had luck with these - no edges or loose ebds to get at. Still made out of PVC....