# Keeps destroying his dog beds?



## Bextastic (Apr 8, 2008)

Yes I'm back  I've been really really sick and really busy planning a wedding, so between the too I don't get online much obviously. Anyway, I'm back with a question.

Bex is good in his crate except for one thing: if I put bedding in there of any kind (foam bed pad, towel, blanket, anything!) he destroys it instead of sleeping on it. I have put several things in with him to chew on should he decide he's not tired and want to do something, but he ignores the toys and goes right for the bed. I come in and find him lying on the hard plastic surfaces, bedding wrecked and shredded and pushed around the crate. I even asked at the store for what they considered a very durable crate pad. It took him *drumroll.......* ONE HOUR to render it useless. Just shredded it. He doesn't do it while I'm watching, but as soon as he's alone, bam. No more bedding.

So I guess the question is, would it be terrible for me to just give up and let him sleep in the crate without bedding? That's how it always ends up... he pushes it all aside to chew on and just lies on the plastic. Or is there something he absolutely can't destroy that I can put in there? Might he be telling me he just doesn't want to sleep on something soft? I've even tried putting old carpeting cut to size in there because I thought it was heavy and would stay flat, but he managed to rip into it by morning.

P.S. Yes, I exercise my dog, I just realized someone would bring that up here haha. Two walks a day of about 4 miles (an hour) each with him wearing a backpack. One around noon, and one around 5-6pm. In addition to fetch in the field in the afternoons when we can. He goes to bed around 10 or 11 and we get up at 7ish.


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

He'll be fine without a bed that he could possibly ingest so, for his own safety cross them off your list. When he gets older he might appreciate something softer and then you can try it again.


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## aero4ever (Jan 18, 2007)

When my youngest was in a crate I spent alot of money on a nice sheepskin, it was so soft... then I notice something....what's in her poop???? Oh, that nice sheepskin.... needless to say, no more bedding. She didn't seem to notice and considering she sleeps on floor when we're watching TV, I didn't feel bad about removing blankets/bedding/pillows etc from her crate.


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## Bextastic (Apr 8, 2008)

Yeah, my thinking was he sleeps on the wood floor during the day all the time anyway and better he should sleep on plastic than choke on foam right? Just wanted a couple more opinions. My roommate insists I'm being cruel to make him sleep in the crate all night with no bedding, but clearly she's not the one paying for all the beds - or the vet bill when we'd eventually have to remove foam and a zipper from him. Sigh. No bedding it is!


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

TooneyDogs said:


> He'll be fine without a bed that he could possibly ingest so, for his own safety cross them off your list. When he gets older he might appreciate something softer and then you can try it again.


Isn't this like the man who went to the Dr and said Doc whenever I raise my arm over my head it hurts. What should I do? The Dr said stop raising your arm over your head.


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## Ca8 (Oct 26, 2008)

OH MY GOD! Bex is GORGEOUS


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## Cheetah (May 25, 2006)

I think it's fine to just let him sleep on the crate floor, since that's the end result anyway lol... Shippo didn't get bedding in his crate until he was a year-and-a-half old for the same reason.


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## blackrose (Oct 7, 2006)

Sadie would destroy anything in her crate at night when she got older, toys or no. So she just slept one the bare bottom of the crate. She had some bones to chew on, which she would do happily at three o'clock in the morning, but she didn't get any bedding. She never seemed to mind. 

Now, Chloe on the other hand....she likes her bedding. She just walked back to our back hallway, grabbed a rug, drug it into the living room, and is now sleeping on it. LOL  We though she was going to chew on it like she sometimes does, but nope, she just wanted a bed.


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## the mama (Dec 28, 2007)

Oh, totally there with you.

Holly started eating her bedding, and then it was all down hill. ANYthing, like you say, is shredded.

So, we stopped putting anything in there. She's fine. Didn't even seem to notice. The only time we have anything besides toys in there is after she has a bath--we put a towel in there so she can snuggle-up and to absorb any dampness. She doesn't seem to chew that.

Bex'll be fine on the crate floor.


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