Hi, Chester is bored silly; that is his problem. So, give him a job to do. Take Chester to Obedience School. Dogs love to learn, and they love the one-on-one quality time they get in Obedience training. This will cost you one hour per week, plus 15-30 minutes, daily, doing "homework". Obedience, plus the Exercise program that someone else on the list suggested, should solve your Enron Dog problems. You will all have fun with this. Sara Steele
----- Original Message ----- From: Bonawitz, Greg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: 'Bernese Mountain Dog Mailing List' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 8:55 AM Subject: low lying pillows, newspapers, and magazines are in danger! > I have a 16 month old male Berner who has suddenly developed a bad habit. > My wife and I both work, and for months Chester "behaved himself" perfectly > while we were gone (we pretty much give him free reign in the house). In > the past few weeks, all of a sudden, if there are any newspapers or > magazines lying on the coffee table (in our family room, which due to it's > size we can't close off), we come home to find that he's shredded them > better than an Enron employee. He seems to know that it's bad since as soon > as we open the door and see it, he takes off. I've tried taking him over to > the shredded papers and telling him "no" as well as taking him to [OK] > papers lying on the table and telling him "no", but it does no good. We now > leave no papers on the coffee table, but he then goes after the pillows on > the sofa (smart little bastard!). > > I would really prefer not to crate him all day, especially since he was so > good for ~ 8 months of this (and day care was too expensive). However, our > family room has lost it's comfort with all of the pillows now stored up on > top of the sofa backs and no reading material on the coffee table while > we're gone. We have bones lying there for him to play with, which he does > do sometimes, but I don't know if he gets bored with it or what. Any > suggestions as to what I can try doing? > > Thanks > > - Greg >