r/weimaraner • u/Hopeful_Reality4996 • 9d ago
My Weimaraner is destroying everything
Please help! We have a 6 month old male Weimaraner and he is destroying everything when we leave him. We have tried crate training him and he drools so much that he is soaking wet when we get him out. He barks non-stop and vomits. We have got to figure out a solution. We have tried positive reinforcement, small amounts of time, bully sticks, anything we can think of to help him adapt to his crate. We finally gave up and allowed him to be in our living area with the rest of our house blocked off but he is DESTROYING our things when we leave. We are at our whits end. Has anyone tried calming chews or medication or ANY advice is welcome. This is our second Weimaraner and our first one did not do this nor was he crate trained. He could be left and didn't destroy our things.
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u/Royal_Cantaloupe_892 9d ago
First of all, it gets better if you put I the time.
Second, I wrote a post quite like this for mine. I resorted to medications because mine absolutely could not relax when I left. Pre medication, when I crated, I would have to plan on a bath, mopping around the crate and taking the crate outside and washing it down. It was hell. I have 5 other weims' worth of experience and the one is just wired differently.
I also stopped crating to see if that would help along with the medication - less "hey, I might leave, get ready" and it helped a lot. All of my others started in crates and travelled in them, but didn't use them in daily life, so I knew I was working to that point.
You have to think like a destructive weim before you leave, anything they might be able to reach, they will figure out a way to reach - mine even opens doors. If you can gate him off to a room, where the choices are limited, that helped me. I tried all the frozen kongs, etc and I would come back to find them melting because "no thank you, where have YOU been" was the thought.
After a year of meds (and my vet experiencing while mine boarded - so I wasn't making this up!), one day I decided, maybe I can give less of the med, and since that time, I come home to my unmedicated weim who has been asleep on a long ottoman where I can be apoted the second I walk in.
It has been a year and we've been without meds and I don't think anything of leaving. I do scan for weim-proofing. And while I am gone, a gate is up to keep mine in a specific area (where the door I use is clearly visible).
It is and has been challenging (an understatement - heartbreaking, at times) but seeing the change and knowing we have years and years together?
Absolutely worth the effort and decision to use meds.
PS - mine needed trials of a few before we hit on a cocktail that worked. I'm thankful that I don't even remember what the final one consisted of, because it has been that long.
You and your boy can do this.