My beagle eats all of her toys!
I have a beagle that is a year and a half that chews and eats all of her toys! I even got her one of the toys that is supposed to be indestructible and she chewed the edges of it to eat the thread! I don't know what to do! How can I get her to stop eating them without taking all of them away?
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Your beagle is adolescent. In my experience, young dogs begin to "settle down" around one and a half to two years of age. (Of course there is great variation to this "rule of thumb" between breeds and even within breeds.)
I'd suggest you might be around six months from enjoying a more mature and less destructive pet.
My cattle kelpie has a beautiful nature now, but was a real rascal when he was young. In fact his behaviour began to settle down when he was around a year and a half old and he was a far more responsive and less mischievous companion once he was two years old.
Also - look on the bright side - your beagle is chewing her toys and not your furniture or your shoes or your clothes or your bed linen...
My humble advice is to:
be patient for the next six months and allow your beagle to enjoy her adolescence (so long as she restricts her destructive behaviour to her toys); and
be thankful that your beagle is directing her energy to her toys and not anything else in your home.
I'll also direct you to my response to a question about durable chewing toys...
Rottweiler - need a durable chewing toy or ball, DESPERATE OWNER :)
and
my answer.
Hope this helps.
No dog toys are truly indestructible, although the KONG Extreme line is very durable and this Goughnuts ring is guaranteed indestructible (they also have a tug toy). I would certainly take the guarantee with a grain of salt, but providing the toughest toys available is a good start.
Now onto your main question - how to prevent your pup from destroying/eating all of her toys. The best way to ensure your pup isn't destroying all of her toys is to make it more rewarding to practice another behavior or to remove the reward from this behavior. It will be a bit easier to remove the reward than to compete with it, so that's what I'll focus on. Beagle's were bred as pack hunters, and as such your pup needs loads of exercise and stimulation (mental and physical). I'm assuming you've gone through basic obedience training when you first got her. If not, start there. Your pup should be reliable with basic commands, such as sit, stay, and come (that last one is a life saver). Aside from daily trips to the dog park or dog daycare (assuming this is your only dog), you should be practicing obedience training throughout each day. If you can afford to, getting your dog into a sport (like agility or flyball) will alleviate a lot of her excess energy which she's currently releasing onto her toys. You can search for a training club near you here.
At the end of the day a tired dog is a good dog. By making sure she's properly stimulated with appropriate activities you will ensure that she doesn't feel the need to destroy all of her toys.
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