Does Charlie Sheen live here?

[jesstat]

The past few days I have seriously wondered what has gotten into Diego. We come home and our house looks like some sort of hotel party gone wrong. Last night we came home from dinner and Diego had gotten into our laundry basket, ripped one of my bras in half, threw my fiance's boxers all over the house, and shredded his brand new dog bed leaving foam pieces everywhere!

I know he's still a puppy (11 months), but this destruction came out of nowhere and it doesn't seem to matter if we're gone for 20 minutes or 3 hours...he just destroys everything in sight. He has been fine uncrated for about 6 months now. And it's not lack of exercise...yesterday we took him for a 2 hour walk (with some fetch at the park) right before we went out.

When I get my keys now, he starts jumping wildly and sometimes even nips my arm. It's like he's actually angry at us for leaving. My fiance also found a poop on the floor (not a sick poop, just a normal one), not near the door or anything. Just in the middle of the room. And Diego has never ever pooed in the house, not even when he was being housebroken.

We really just don't know what happened to him. He passed his obedience classes with flying colors and is a perfect gentleman when we're home. He listens well and only chews on his toys. I just don't know how to control him while we're gone. I've tried distracting him with peanut butter in his kong when we leave but that doesn't seem to help.

Sorry this was so long, we're just really frustrated! Anyone have any ideas to help us deal with this sudden anger/anxiety??

[lindamarie]

It is said, and I think was actually proven on a video, that the most destruction occurs within the first 5 minutes or so once people leave.

Actually, I am surprised that you could start leaving him at 6 months!
Age doesn't really matter though. This is the way dogs are with separation anxiety.
I had a Weimaraner/Lab that was SO destructive when left alone. As he grew older, and he died at 15 years.....he would still have to go and even take just ONE piece of tissue out of a waste basket to let us know he was ticked!
Our vet even told us that if anything were ever to happen to us...well.....no one would be able to take him! Some dogs are that attached and have such great anxiety.

This doesn't mean there isn't a cure. Some trainers have set up rooms for this training purpose. They watch via camera and somehow manage to correct the behavior.
It would be interesting to google trainers like this and see how much it costs to break this.

Sorry I can't help any further, but you may want to ask your trainer what you can do.

[Riverkatie]

oh dear, poor you and poor Diego! He must be feeling rotten.

I wonder if something frightened him once when you were not there and now he is anxious about being left. We may never know why it started, so we need to fix it.

Maybe you could start crating him again, or leaving him confined to one small room with not much to hurt, like a bathroom, when you go out, with lots of stuffed Kongs and things. When you get back ignore him at first and wander about chatting as if you had only nipped to the bathroom. Only let him out when he is calm and don't fuss right away, make a cuppa first...then initiate a play session.

I think asking your trainer is a good idea as well, they may have some great ideas we don't know about.

Good luck, and hugs!

[becka]

I heard a radio interview recently with the man who wrote

this book.

this book.

He described a strategy for eliminating separation anxiety that involved leaving the house and coming right back in, and then gradually increasing the amount of time between the leaving and returning (three minutes, six minutes, ten minutes, etc, etc). The idea is that because dogs have no sense of time and live in the now, they need to be conditioned to associate your leaving with your returning.

I am only paraphrasing what I remember him saying in the interview. The book itself sounds very interesting and will probably (if it hasn't already) cause some consternation among Cesar Millan fans and others who subscribe to dominance-based training. I personally love to watch Cesar's TV show--his rapport with dogs is magical to me--but I tend to get frustrated by the deep divisions among various dog behavior experts/schools of thought.

Oops--I apologize for hijacking the thread! jesstat, I agree with riverkatie that there's a cause for this behavior (even though it seems like it came out of nowhere) but you might never be able to pinpoint it, and what's important is that you find a way to restore your puppy's sense of security (and thereby your own sanity!).

[Nikkiey]

I know how you're feeling jesstat! Juneau was fine being left alone when he was younger and we used to leave him in our laundry room for the first half of the day and then after lunch we would put him in his kennel (while we were at work). Well, he was about 8 months old when he ate our lino floor in our laundry room, he was about 8.5 months old when he chewed through the side of his plastic kennel and he was 9 months old when he managed to bend and mangle his wire kennel and destroy the tray.

We managed to find out, from our neighbour, that the first time Juneau was destructive in our house, there were people going door to door offering some kind of product for sale. Well, since no one was home but the dog they may have rang the doorbell a few times which could have just set him off. Either way, we don't know why he continues to be destructive. And like Diego, he's exercised quite well before we leave him. Whether it be my husband out on rollerblades and Juneau running with him or just our "regular" walk.

The only thing that we have found to work for Juneau is he must be in his kennel in the garage when we are leaving. He watches us pull away from the house and he's the first to see us when we come back. Since we've been doing this, he's been fine. Of course we still give him his kong with peanut butter and we sprinkle some kibbles around the bottom of his kennel, but all-in-all, it seems to be going well. (*knock on wood*) I wish you all the luck in finding what works for you guys!

[jesstat]

Thanks everyone! Lots of good suggestions for us to try. When we first starting leaving him alone this winter, we did the gradual leave, come back in 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc thing. Maybe he needs a refresher that we will be home.

This morning I also just started carrying my keys around while I was getting ready in hopes that he won't always associate the sound with my leaving.

Maybe I'll give our trainer a call too to see if he has any tips. Thanks again for all your advice!