IN Gov., wife, and Nigel
Indiana's first dog, Nigel, doesn't seem to have learned much at doggy boot camp.Cheri Daniels has been trying to rehabilitate the bearded collie, a gift to her from her husband, Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Unfortunately, Nigel chews anything he can get his teeth on.
The first couple tried obedience school, but that didn't work. He still chewed up several remote controls, shoes, drapes, a couch and a lamp cord. So Cheri Daniels sent him to boot camp in Fishers, where Nigel could get intensive behavioral training.
[...]
Nigel came home last week -- and everything seemed fine for a while, the governor reported.
But by the end of the next day, Nigel had a relapse. Daniels said he'll probably always think of him as the "incorrigible Nigel."
The casualty this time?
A pair of flip-flops.
1)Having someone else train your dog DOES NOT WORK. And given how strong a desire to please the typical Beardie has, if he did poorly in obedience classes it was probably due to the human half of the team that wasn't learning anything.
2)OF COURSE he chews. If you buy an active working breed with high mental and physical drives and don't give it a job to do, even if that job is fetching small objects you need, then it will release all that mental and physical energy in some other fashion. Give that dog two good, vigorous walks or play sessions a day and some kind of mental engagement (as well as some good toys and positive feedback for chewing on those) and he'd probably be fine.
Geez. It's a dog, and a working dog at that, not an accessory.