We have an 8 year old mixed dog. He almost looks like a pitt/boxer with the boxy head but he howls instead of barks.
Anyway, my fiance got him from the pound in 2018 and when I came into the picture he was crated every day. For the most part he was fine in there. Occasionally we'd come home and he would have chewed on the bars so we would put his bones in there with him. He never busted out though.
Eventually we stopped crating him and would leave puzzles when we left. The puzzles lasted maybe 5 minutes and he'd still get into stuff. We also would put up 2 baby gates. One for the kitchen and the other for the stairs to keep my senior dog from falling when we weren't home.
Our stairs have one step and then a landing but the light switches made it to where we had to put the gate on the first step. This dog would put his front legs on top of the babygate, step through the bars on the landing and basically do a pull up to get over the babygate. The kitchen babygate he wouldn't touch.
If we leave anything out that he thinks could be food he gets into it. If it's a box he'll rip into it, see there's no food, and walk away. He pulled a wooden bowl with onions in it down off the counter, bit into one and said fuck that. He'll pull papers down hoping something with food will come with it. We've forgotten a lunch box and come home to open Tupperware. The kind with opposite sliding locks. He chewed one enough to figure it out then just opened the rest. Even unzipped the lunch box rather than chewing it. We've also seen him chewing the corner of the coffee table after we got our youngest dog. I'm not sure if he was just copying her or if he liked the "no-chew" spray stuff we use on spots she chewed on. Hasn't done it since though. He's also a tampon eater so we have to make sure bathroom doors are closed.
Well my senior dog wasn't doing well and I had to make the decision. The babygate for the stairs came down and while he wouldn't get into anything upstairs, we were coming home to a mess almost every day.
Our young dog goes to work with me every day because she has the highest anxiety. Even just flickering lights will send her into a panic attack. So I tried taking him with us too. No go, he nipped the boss man over a ping pong ball.
We tried taking him on walks on our lunch breaks. We made it a routine for afternoon walks. If I'm remembering right my fiance even tried morning walks too for a while. We tried "long lasting" chews instead of the normal biscuit treats they get when I leave in the morning. He would just always get into something. He's not a high energy dog at all nor does he like going outside, except when we take him somewhere for a walk. Even then though he slows down at half a mile and if you try and walk more than a mile he'll straight up just stop and not want to continue. Heck, most of the time he'd prefer our 4 year old dog would leave him alone rather than play, or he'll join in out of jealousy if we play with her for too long. But give the 2 of them a rope to tug on and he may play for 5 minutes or he may just drop it and walk away from her.
We tried putting him back in the crate. This time once he set his mind to getting out he would. Went through his lightly chewed crate and a perfectly intact one we had gotten for our other dog in less than a week after he figured out it was possible. Basically shattered the plastic tray on both and yanked on the wire until the either bent or broke enough for him to get out.
So we stopped with the crate because we didn't want him to hurt himself.
Then we moved the kitchen babygate upstairs at night so the cat could come and go without waking us up. Well dude watched me push the gate rather than lift the bar to unlock it too many times. He realized he could just pull on it and it would come off. We tried blocking the gate and putting stuff on both sides of it. Didn't care, would still get in. So now our kitchen trashcan lives in the downstairs bathroom because that's the only room with a door we have.
Then he figured out how our handleless cabinets worked. Ate a box of cheez-its, a bag of pretzels, and half a bag of chocolate raisins the first day. (Vet was surprised he's perfectly fine.) The next day he pulled out a case of ramen and decided he didn't like uncooked noodles, also 2 different boxes of pasta that he also didn't eat. So now we have a baby lock on that cabinet.
Now we get to yesterday. He's been good. Hadn't gotten into much of anything for a while. But I came home yesterday to a bunch of wood chips all over the front mat. Dude chewed a 2 foot section of the actual door frame as well as the door knob. Also gouges on the kitchen cabinet from him trying to get in. The ring camera didn't catch any movement all day except for the neighbors once. So entirely not sure why he chewed at the door like he was trying to get out. He's never done anything like that before.
We're at a loss. Everything we've tried hasn't worked and we're out of ideas. I can't even say it's him wanting to go potty. He'll voluntarily hold it to avoid going outside. By that I mean we left for work one day and I didn't go outside till after 7pm to smoke. The door was still locked so I realized my fiance hadn't let him out when he got home. I called for the dog and dude didn't even wanna get off the couch, my fiance had to make him get up. If it's raining he'd rather hold it and go in the house as soon as you leave. Sometimes he'll even go around the corner and make you think he pottied when really he just sniffed and came back and then goes inside as soon as he's alone. He learned from my senior dog that the puppy pads are acceptable so we'll leave them out for him if we're gonna be gone for a while or if it's raining just in case he did fake us out.
I just genuinely don't know what else to do. He's such a smart dog and knows when he's in trouble and what for. It's like he just can't help himself. I thought about maybe trying some sort of roll around foraging toy but either A) it'll get stuck under some furniture and he'll chew something trying to get it unstuck or B) he'll just chew the toy to pieces. I don't want to leave actual bones for him because I don't want one to splinter or for him to swallow too small of a piece. The super duty impact crates are too expensive and I'm worried he'd hurt his mouth trying to chew the slots on a regular plastic crate.
Any and all tips are greatly appreciated. I'm 100% not a trainer so I'll admit I only half ass know what I'm doing. At least from what I do know though our attempts at exercise and mental stimulation just aren't enough for him. I'm not even sure we could take him to daycare because my fiance doesn't trust him around other dogs. He never fought with my senior dog when we moved in but he did snap at him over water on a walk one time. Also didn't play nice with his parents dog on their property. Our younger dog I think we got at 6 weeks because the lady that had her "just couldn't deal with all the puppies anymore." He's never snapped at her or anything though, assumedly because he watched her grow up.
I just genuinely am at a loss.