So yesterday I went to visit the wife and baby at the hospital and left my almost 2 year old Boxer cyprus in the office. When I returned to pick him up this is what I found.








Not only did he destroy allot of invoices and Bills but cheques that I had received yesterday and my Colasanti white italian fig my very first fig I purchased and a total of 7 plants were destroyed. I walked in, walk out got my camera from the car took the pics then looked at the dog as I was debating what to do with him, took me 3 hrs to clean up the office.

What devastation, my heart broke when I see these pictures.  Able to salvage anything???? My Jack Russell Terriers did this once and never after that again. I love them, but boy was I mad mad!
Ciao

Maggie Mad is not the word, I swear my face was like a volcano errupting but I tried to not explode or else I would kill the dog. The only one that might have a slim chance is my White Italian fig from colasanti it was almost 3ft it is now about 9 Inches he chewed the bark on a few places above the roots and also root pruned it lol so right now its 50/50 the other plants theres no hope as there is only tiny pices of bark wood and roots all over the place and I threw them out. This is the second time he did this third strike and he will be spending lots of time in the cage.

Hi Nelson,
gosh that is sad, i too would be extremly mad and afterwards very sad.
Im a dog lover as i grew up with them and have 3 at present time.
Has your dog in past chewed up stuff other than fig plants or just messed things up when was left alone most times ?
If so, some dogs get what they call "seperation anxiety" when left alone , and do these things.
I have heard that before but never experienced it with my dogs .
Nelson either way since its happened before you might have to find another area for your dog other than where the fig plants are at when left alone.

I sent you an email.

Martin you hit the nail on the head this dog has been with me since it came home 24hrs a day I bring him to work everyday so from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep hes with me. If I leave even to go buy groceries and leave him at home with my fiance he waits by the door the whole time crying, his a big big baby. If i leave him alone he tries to find things I like and chews it. I moved all the fig trees away from anywhere he could reach and he moved chairs somehow and climed on top of the desk on top of the file cabinets and still got to them.

Nelson, that is a disaster. You have had your plate full this week, man. I think I'd have to trade that dog in for a cat. Okay, you guys can stop throwing things at me now!!!

Tim dont get me wrong I paid allot of money for this dog I dont even want to mention how much cause you would think im crazy. He is a good dog normaly the problem is has way too much energy and I dont have a backyard for him to burn it off, I need to buy a house ASAP.

Looks like sibling rivalry temper tantrum- not taking well to the new little sister, who is hogging the limelight lately.

Jon I think your right, soon you will see me on the Cesar Millan show lol.

Ciao Nelson,

I want to say this not to alarm, but Jon said what I wanted to say after I ate and had a cup of coffee.  When I was just about to deliver, my one dog got aggressive with me. He could sense I was pregnant and got very very jealous and tempermental with me.  It was bad and when Alessandro came home he did this terrible tantrums and was almost protective of me from Alessandro (son)  The vet said he needed to be taught that there is a new member of the Pack as they call it.  Take careful in this time as the baby will come home and your dog may or may not be jealous of it.  He may need a friend and with these kinds of dogs, especially the ones I have, some need alot of room to burn of this energy or they will take it out on whatever they get their mouths on.  I kept my one dog away from baby until he was able to understand what the situation was, now he sometimes licks his face and even checks on the crib to make sure son is okay. But he didn't like it at all when I was almost two weeks to deliver and after.  He knew something or someone was coming, they can also sense the hormone changes in us ladies when we are birthing, nursing, ect.  Dogs are amazing animals. Like Martin said, and I agree as I am soo close to my dog babies I grew up with all kinds of animals, but dogs are always such good friends and need to be trained properly in this situation. Ciao, I wish the best of luck. I wish I could send you some fig plants to Canada, but I am out now. I will get with you this summer before the move to Florida. Ciao

That's terrible. It reminds me of a scene of a movie.
I had a cat that did a little mess, and when my wife was pregnant I gave it to a friend. Now I wish I kept it, it was keeping the mice away.

Once you get settled let me know what you're missing. I hope to send you some replacement cuttings.

Last year my big dog went into the fig patch & dug a big hole to snooze. It was a mess. Good thing he had not acquire the taste for garden fruits like my earlier one.
I may be able to help with variants you have lost from my collection. You can email me privately.

Wow, I love my dogs, but they would be finding a new home after that. Especially if that is the second time it happened.

Thank you guys, I tell you im happy with the way I reacted considering my short temper. Im just trying to deal with things without snapping wich has got quite difficult for more than one reason. For one my dad is my Boss and considering all I want to do is be in the Hospital with my fiance and daughter I have to still have to work 11hrs a day because my dad is scared of answering phones so instead I have to work 11hrs then spend 4-5 hrs with my two lovely ladies and then go home and get 3-4hrs of sleep. Secondly they said little jasmin was at a level 3 with newborn Jaundice wich they had to monitor her for 24 hrs. Second test showed it had gone down but now she was turning a little yellow, then Last night she started turning a little purple and was having difficulty breathing and her heartrate droped to 70 wich is allot lower than it should be. This is how my last two days have been, but yet I am possitive and have faith everything will be fine.

Sorry for the mess, Nelson. The good thing is all these things are eventually replaceable and the the other good thing is that this time you know who did it. Last time it took a while to find out that a cousin did it.
Try to re-pot all anyway. You may be happily surprised with some coming back to life. If any of my rooted (or unrooted) cuttings are gone you know that replacements will be available.

Thanks Akram I agree the plants are replaceable the small plants were gonners he managed to chop them down to bite size pieces and removed the bark completely form most of them the only one that still might have some chance is the white italian fig from Colasanti farms wich was looking just lovely. Things happen for a reason, the next time I leave him here I will make sure I bring the cage from home, Oh and I rather the dog do this than have a family member steal from me. Thank you all for all the generosity really appreciate it.

Bag dog! Whoof, whoof, whoof...

Get him into anger management classes, asap.

Maybe a jealousy fit?!
Be very careful,
pets have been known to act strange to a new-born (human) baby...

I will give him lots of attention when the baby finally comes home, I am the alpha dog so if he wants to play games I will surely straighten him out quick. Funny thing is the last two weeks everytime my fiance was sitting down he would always go and put his head on top of her belly and go to sleep but im sure he will be gealous. If he miss behaves with the baby then he will definately go to obedience school but I think he will be ok he loves kids.

Nelson,

I will make it simple!
Please do not leave the dog alone with the newborn for one second!

Looks like it needs time to adjust.

So instead of talking about what we'll do to the dog if it harms the baby, Lets prevent it from happening in the first place.

Oh Rafed I would never leave the two alone for one second. Not taking any chances

Jason,
[Good-grief/ooops! I must be getting old - this was really addressred to Nelson]

I am not sure you got my message!
Please do  protect and then gradually introduce your lovely
new-born daughter to your (bad) dog...

[To heck with them figs/pets/office-stuff repalceable material]

Hi Gorgi I will definately do it slowly and still show affection to the dog so he doesnt get too gealous.

Dogs don't experience jealousy.  You are humanizing an animal, and that is often when animals misbehave and get confused about their role in the pack (i.e. in your household/family).  When dogs get confused like that, this is when they dominate and destroy things, because they start believing (b/c of your projection of emotion and energy) that you are actually following them, so they become your pack leader, they run the show, everything around them is owned by them, it is their domain, and they can destroy it as they please. 

I suspect your dog is acting this way because he has too much pent up energy, typical of breeds like Boxers and Jack Russel Terriers,  and he has not properly been given proper rules, boundaries and limitations.  High-energy dogs like this require a minimum of 20-30 minutes of disciplined walking per day.  Walking and letting the dog lead you, pulling you around is not an example, I'm saying, you need to be correcting the dog's tugs and asserting yourself as the leader of the walk, from the moment that you walk out the door before him on the way out of the house, to your walking in the door before him on the way in the house.  If you ever let him lead or pull without correction (a slight tug or touch of the foot), you are allowing him to test his boundaries, and establish that he is supposed to be controlling that activity.  Dogs establish boundaries like this in nature.  It is very different from humans.

Also, back yard is NOT a walk, neither is playing fetch, the walk is an exercise of both control (you controlling the dog), physical relief (energy exhaustion), discipline (tasks during the walk) and adventure (mental exhaustion).  Regardless of how big your yard is, you must understand that your dog sees the backyard as an extension of the house, your shared house.  You can accomplish wearing him out (energy exhaustion) by playing ball with him in the backyard, but you are not giving him any disciplined challenge (games are not discipline IMHO), and you're definitely not providing an adventure to exhaust his brain.

Ultimately, with no real leader, a dog will pretty much do anything they damned well please.  Everyone in the dog's life MUST be seen as a pack leader by your dog, or your dog will quickly get this idea they're the leader - dogs live "in the moment", they don't remember what happened yesterday, this idea of being pack leader can transition in less than 15-20 minutes of being with a submissive person who is not taking a leadership role.

Someone mentioned Cesar Millan above.  He would probably tell you something like, "This is not dog obedience, this is simple dog psychology."  I like his mantra, "Exercise, Discipline, Affection, always in that order"  Without at least 15-20 minutes of all three of these per day, your more hyper breeds will instantly go from calm, submissive state to more of an anxious, fearful or aggressive state.

Dogs are not human beings, and do not have human emotions in the way they're being depicted by many human owners.  It is very important you do not think of your dog as a human or treat your dog as a kid.  Especially with high-energy dogs, it will lead them to a persistent state of anxiety, fear and ultimately end up aggressive, which is not conducive to an environment with a baby.

FWIW, I have dogs, rescues that had serious problems which were promptly fixed using a lot of methods that Ceser explains, and we're about to bring a kid into the household as well, with a dog that was child-aggressive in the past (due to fear of them).  Mr. Millan is a good guy to watch.  Buying a couple DVDs of his show should be a mandatory pre-requisite to dog ownership.  The guy knows his stuff, and humans really don't understand the psychology and needs of a dog, but prefer to treat them as a human family member, which is unhealthy for the dog and the family.

Human projection doesn't stop with love.  People who think "time out", yelling, spanking or verbally scolding, ignoring or getting angry at dogs is some form of discipline for dogs couldn't be more wrong.  These are all "human" ideas which should be applied to humans.  Dogs learn they are doing something wrong by correcting them in the act, and repeating this correction many times in a short period.  You do this by challenging them to perform the task, and correcting when they try.  These types of exercises to form limitations, rules, boundaries are all very healthy for a dog.
Even the smallest task is helpful in establishing dominance.  Like forcing your dog to sit at the door while you walk out of the house until you tell them they can come outside, and vice-versa on the way in.  You should always control activities.  Dogs actually LIKE someone controlling them, and will love you for doing it properly.