Please Help - Doggy Destruction!

Kevie192

Hi all,

I really really need some help, I am at my wits end with our dog and I just don't know what to do.

We've had him from a puppy and he is now nearly 3yrs old. We both work so he has always been left at home during the day. This was fine for him and everything had been going very well until last Tuesday when he chewed through the wire to the radio we leave on for him. He must have got a shock and went to the toilet all over the hallway carpet, spreading it everywhere.

We got him checked out by the vet and apparently he is fine, despite a few superficial injuries.

The following day, when we were at work, he pulled up the carpet in the hallway by the doors to the kitchen and our bedroom. The next day, he was absolutely fine and didn't touch anything. The next day, more destruction and scratching of the paint on the kitchen door.

Today, we went out for a few hours and put him in his crate. He is used to the crate as we have used them since he was a puppy. However, he managed to escape from it somehow and caused even more destruction.

My worry now is that he is going to go on to damage other things or worse, himself. He can open the doors (even though they are knobs) and I'm concerned he will get into the kitchen and damage the cupboards or something.

To make matters worse, our landlord has just served us notice so we are house hunting. I don't have the money for them to deduct significant damage from our deposit so need to keep the destruction at a minimum.

The vet gave me a hard time about leaving him at home all day so I have arranged for my niece to come round at lunchtimes and walk him but he's causing this destruction even when left for just a few hours.

Please help. What do I do? I really am completely out of ideas and it's really getting me down

Kevin

scaredy_cat

you might need to try an dog behaviorist.

niandsa

It sounds like he is suffering from anxiety following the radio accident. The vet is right, it is too long to leave a dog all day on their own as they are such social animals. It's great that your niece can take him out at lunchtimes.

Do you leave him anything to entertain him whilst you are gone? Mine are always left with a kong filled with something tasty and frozen. Or how about a stag bar if he likes to chew? The more he has to entertain him the less time he will have to be destructive.

I would be tempted to video him whilst you are out to see if there is a pattern or trigger to the destructive behaviour. I believe there are apps for this purpose but have never used one personally.

Good luck. I hope he becomes more settled soon.

monty-doggy

My puppy had serious separation anxiety and I think I've got it sorted perfectly now!

Firstly I bought him a thundershirt, which works amazingly. Just google it. It works like swaddling a baby and makes them feel calm and relaxed.
I also have an Adaptil collar and plug in for him.

When I leave I give him his stag bar and a kong filled with a nice mix of treats and paste. I leave the radio on but make sure it's out of reach.

My oh comes home at lunch to relieve him and play with him or take him out wether permitting!

He then has in the afternoon a bephar treat ball which he loves! It's a big plastic ball with a very small hole in it, we put a few treats and some of his normal kibble in it and this keeps him busy and occupied all afternoon.

I agree your doggy prob stressed about his accident, and needs to have his mind occupied to forget it. I'd recommend the ball as it's hard work getting them out!

trolleyrun

Did you get your notice from landlord before this started? This could bring on anxiety in animals. The discussions, starting packing and clearing out stuff, basically anything that isn't "normal" for your dog can be stressful to him. I'm glad your niece can take him out at lunchtime and once he realises she's coming every day, his stress levels should hopefully reduce a bit.

Kevie192

Thanks all.

He does have a kong as well as lots of treats and toys for when we go out.

Trolleyrun, the wire chewing happened on Tuesday and we didn't hear about the notice till Friday so it can't be that.

Think I will have to get some extra clips for his crate in the hope it will contain him until he starts to improve. He loves his crate normally and sometimes sleeps in there etc so I don't think it's a fear of the crate or anything that's causing the issues.

Thanks again. Had another sleepless night worrying about it tonight but there's not really much I can do for tomorrow

Kevin

krlyr

If he's suffering separation anxiety (and this is something that should ideally be diagnosed by a behaviourist to ensure it's the right diagnosis), remember that it is essentially a phobia of being left alone. It is quite irrational, and therefore difficult to understand at times. If you don't have a spider phobia, you may think it's silly to be scared of such a tiny, harmess thing - but if you do have that phobia, you'll be terrified despite knowing you're thousands of times bigger!

One of mine developed separation anxiety after moving, though hers tied in with her hypothyroidism (she was diagnosed a little while after and improved a lot on medicaiton). What I've noticed is that it doesn't really make much sense. Kiki would become distressed about me going upstairs, even if she could hear I was moving around upstairs. I managed to stop this by ensuring I consistantly gave her something rewarding whenever I left the room (and made sure OH did the same) - and selected this reward to match the length of time I was out of the room. If I was nipping to the bin with the rubbish, I scattered a handful of treats to occupy her for the 15 seconds I was out there. If I was popping up to the loo, it would be a Kong smeared with food to occupy her for a few minutes. If I was going up for a bath, it was a filled, frozen Kong or a tough chew that would last her 20 minutes. The idea is that the dog learns that it is rewarding to be alone, but you return just as, or slightly before they finish the reward to avoid them becoming distressed. By avoiding this distress, they don't rehearse the undesired behaviour (e.g. becoming destructive), and their emotional response to being left home alone begins to change for the better.

You do ideally have to try following this rule for leaving the house too though, which can be difficult. Each time he's left home alone, he'll experience that distress, and rehearse his destructive behaviour. Not just that, but his stress levels will rise, and this stress can linger. So on day one, he may have been OK, day two he got a bit stressed and destroyed the place, on day three he still has some residual stress from the previous day, and gets even more stressed..and so on. Ideally, you want to avoid any further stress and try to avoid leaving him home alone. If you have to go to work, try to arrange someone to come and stay with him, or to take him to someon/somewhere he has company (e.g. family/friend, or a petsitter). You can then work on leaving him for short periods of time, entirely within your control - you want to work up from minutes, perhaps even seconds, rather than expecting him to manage hours straight away.

I have been there, as said, and know this can be quite impractical. I fortunately managed to work from home for a little while to deal with Kiki's behaviour initially, and then between OH's work schedule, and my nan who lives over the road, managed to avoid leaving her alone for the start. This gave her body/mind a break from the stress she was experiencing, and allowed me to work on the foundations of teaching her to be left alone. It really will be harder if you have to keep leaving him each day.

You can also work on things when you're home - as well as rewarding all your little trips upstairs, etc., you can work on teaching a bit more independance. Don't let him follow you from room to room, for example. Make it rewarding for him to settle on his bed - so give him a nice chew or a stuffed Kong with his dinner in his crate, so it reinforces crate = good. Work on training a proper "settle", as opposed to an "on your bed"/"in your crate" - this is where you sit by the bed/crate and reward him for showing relaxed behaviour. I put a chair by Kiki's bed, and started to reward her when she chose to walk towards it. Then the reward was for putting her foot on the bed, two feet, all four feet. Then the reward was for choosing to lay down on the bed. Next, resting her head down on the bed. Shifting her weight onto her side to get ready to lay down. Each step was rewarding with a marker word (e.g. "good" - I avoided using a clicker as this gets her excited, and the aim here is relaxation) and a small treat. If she was only pretending to be relaxed for the treat (I watched for these signs out of the corner of my eye, such as her eyeballing the treat tub), no treat. Once she wasn't focussing on the food, but relaxing on the bed, she got her "good" and her treat. I worked on this a few times a day, and within days noticed she would be much more likely to go and settle on her bed when left (I used my laptop's webcam to record her each day), and she'd settle for longer.

A behaviourist would help a lot, I know it's an overwhelming issue to deal with. I'd also recommend a thorough vet check - like I say, Kiki was soon after diagnosed with hypothyroidism, one symptom is anxiety. Her behaviour ties in a lot with the condition, if her levels drop (thyroid disease is progressive - as her thyroid deteriorates, she'll require a higher dose of medication) then her anxiety worsens. I'd also really recommend Nicole Wilde's book, "Don't leave me" as a fantastic read - it details trianing plans, calmative products (I tried a lot - they can work great for some dogs, not at all for others, and in some cases worsen things - the Adaptil spray made Kiki more anxious) and also veterinary medications (don't rule these out - you're not drugging your dog up to leave it, but medicating to enable you to train more effectively - these must always be used in conjunction with a behaviour modification plan)

Kevie192

Thank you krlyr.

It's very odd in that he doesn't care if we pop to the bin or leave him. He's happy to sit alone in room whilst we are in another.

Unfortunately having someone with him all the time is just not possible, that's why we've had to go for the crate. Hopefully when he gets into a routine of knowing we will be coming back soon to walk him he will be calmer. Might look at a thunder shirt and a training ball at pets at home today.

Thanks again,

Kevin

Kevie192

Do you think stag bars etc are safe when not supervised? Duke has a buffalo horn but we've never let him have it while we aren't there.

niandsa

A stag bar and kong are the only things I will leave my dogs alone with. They can chew for ages without making much inroads into the stag bar. They aren't extremely powerful chewers though, I guess it depends on the strength of their jaw.

jumpedtheshark

I'm sure this is obvious, but is he very well exercised before you leave him for the day? If he's tired, he might be calmer and more able to just sleep it off.

Also, perhaps a little silly, but I try and not do anything too exciting as soon as I get home. I always ensure I wait a bit before feeding them supper, don't immediately play with them, etc. I give it about 30 minutes of calm after getting home. I do this because I hope that that way they're not learning that my coming home is a trigger for exciting things, so not getting excited-anxious for me to get home. Perhaps it has no impact? Others can chip in...

I leave stag bars with mine, but make sure to throw them away and replace them when they start getting too small for me to feel comfortable leaving mine alone with them.