Destructive

I've never this problem before with my oldest three 6-5.
My new pup Lexi is destroying everything she possibly can when i leave the house, they all have dozens of toys/kongs/chews you name it its in their wooden crate on the floor (which they all play with throughout the day).
Lexi how ever is ignoring said toys (when im out) and today decided to rip up the vinyl on the floor by the safety gate infront of the front door...Don't know what to do here. I don't want to crate her separating her from the other three i don't think its fair so im at a lose. Only thing i think of is to tie toys or treats to the safety gate to distract her when she is by it.

Is there somewhere 'safe', i.e. puppy proof, where you can leave them all, or leave Lexi with one other? That's one option. Another might be to find new things to give her, or only giving her access to some toys at a time and rotating them so they are more interesting when she sees them again.

It's possibly boredom but with the others to play with that's less likely. I wonder if it's just being curious and exploring new things, which happen to be things you don't really want her to explore!

How long do you leave them for, by the way? Not to criticise, just to know what period she needs occupying for.

The others have been together every day for 5-6 years i wouldn't like to separate them from each other, Everywhere is puppy proof to be honest...unless you include the floor. It is separation anxiety, soon as i close the front door she is trying to get under neath the safety gate by digging and i think thats when she came across the vinyl, when i first had her she would yelp and screech not anymore though, just destructive now. I work from home, so its only things like food shopping once a fortnight that i leave them all for more than an hour. So it is hard teaching her how to deal with separation when it only happens once a week or fortnight, if i don't lock the door because i'm only out the front cleaning etc then she is fine but as soon as the handle goes up she's not dull, she knows i'm leaving for a while then.

In that case it's a question of training. I use treats as a distraction, a handful scattered on the floor, then you go out, close the door, and before she's got time to notice, you come back in again and ignore her. Repeat a few times. End of session 1. Session 2, you do the same, but then after that you also go out, count to 5, then come back in, and repeat that a few times. Repeating there and then is important as the first time she might not really notice, and it's often only on the 3rd time that they clock and understand it's ok.

From there, you keep doing the same - start a session with something really easy, then build up to being able to stay out for longer and longer. You'll be able to whizz through intermediate times and skip some as you go along, but always start easy and only add as much as she can cope with easily. Always associate leaving with nice, and you coming back with nothing.

If she reacts to the car starting/leaving, you might need to incorporate that too.

I'd build up very slowly to start of with, counting to 5, then 10, then 20, then 30, so that you really nail the anticipation. That's often when anxiety is at its highest, the worry that it's going to happen.

You'll get through a fair few treats so make sure you've got tiny ones and factor it in when you're doing meals.

If you only leave her for any time once every couple of weeks or so, then start this just after the last shopping trip or whatever, so that you have a couple of weeks ahead of you to do the training before you need to put it to the test.

If you do have a backwards blip at any point, then just go back a few steps, build her confidence again, and you should get back on track quickly.

See how that goes, and fingers crossed.

i done what liz is saying with mia from as little as a few seconds and built it up to a few hours its a long process but one that will take time and lots of patience. id move the car away from the house and if your dog has access to the windows to see out block the bit with a bit cardboard and leave a wee bit of daylight if you feel comfortable doing so . id leave a main light on and tv and or a radio on a calming station or a station with a lot of conversation. this has to be done in little stages slowly and surely

Sorry for delay i seen your posts a couple of days ago but for some reason it wouldn't let me reply.
Yes i am working with her leaving and returning a few minutes later, using distractions etc, good so far but i've not been away for more than an hour. Thanks for the help

Any signs of improvement Amelie ?

some, day later she chewed my brand new settee, i was only gone half hour.
I'm staying door testing, closing and locking it then returning but i can hear her screeching when i do this, i wait till there is silence then return with no fuss etc. I locked them all out of the living room so they have the hall way and part of the bedroom and nothing got damaged, brand new safety gate because she ripped the other one off the wall and could jump it. Just slowly getting her used to me leaving.

Amelie wrote:
I'm staying door testing, closing and locking it then returning but i can hear her screeching when i do this, i wait till there is silence then return with no fuss etc

It sounds like you need to break this down further and also focus on building up a positive association with you closing the door. Throw a handful of treats on the floor, open the door, close it. Open close. Open close. You want her to be able to completely ignore the door opening and closing before you lock it. You might even need to go more slowly, to just putting your hand on the door handle and taking it off. Find what she can cope with and only go one tiny smidge further than that to start off with. And keep throwing down the treats, positive, positive, positive.

Hi I'm new to this part of the forum but have written in another part of it. We got our 3 year old called Barkley from Battersea about 2 months ago. We were told that he was destructive but we thought we would give him a chance... He is only destructive when we leave him, when we are home he doesn't do anything at all. Since we have had him he has chewed shoes, door mat, shopping bags, basically anything which is left near the front door, obviously we have moved all of this and out a lock on the cupboard but we came home tonight to him torn up the whole carpet near the front door. He doesn't chew anything other than near the front door. He isn't left alone often, maybe twice a week and for mostly short periods, but the occasional 6-7 hours. We have built this up gradually. Sometimes he doesn't do anything, sometimes we can go out for 4 hours and he does absolutely nothing but sometimes we can go out for 20 ,images and he wrecks the place. I can't work out why this is the case? Literally any advice is welcomed and appreciated as at this point I am at a dead end, thanks

Hmmm very random by the sounds of it. Sometimes as with my girl, she needed to find her own space so to speak so perhaps you could experiment with the area's accessible and see if it's any better or worse.

Is he restricted from going upstairs or to an area where the sun shines through? Just throwing some ideas out there really

2 months is very early days for a rescue and leaving him for really quite long periods is a lot to ask of him. If possible, I'd avoid anything over a couple of hours for the next few weeks and, if you do have to leave him for a long period of time I'd try and get a dog walker to come in.

Keep a diary and you might be able to see a pattern. For example, you might find that he is worst on days following ones he's been left for longer, or on bin days, or days when it was windy. That would then help you know what is upsetting him and hence how to help him.

Instead of just taking everything away, I would leave him with something he can chew. He needs to chew something, so give him an old piece of carpet or something, as well as toys, stuffed Kongs, etc. And when you leave, scatter or hide lots of treats for him to find. This should help distract him during those initial moments after you've gone and also help build up more pleasant associations with you leaving.

Well done for taking him on, by the way, I'm sure you'll get there!

I had this when my Daisy was a pup. I did the in and out the front door thing and ignoring upon leaving and returning. I kept doing it lots of times over and over again until she didn't even take any notice when I went out. It really works if you keep doing it.

Daisy was very destructive and chewed all my door frames and bannister ( I think she was trying to carve out spindles lol) and a lady from the Guide Dogs told me to rub Clove Oil on everything. It really stinks but OMG it put an end to all of it, you can get in Boots really cheap.

just a thought - you could try Adaptil or Pet Remedy to help keep her calm? Pet Remedy is cheaper, and seems to have the same effect.

Another thought, is the dog getting enough exercise daily? When I go to work I always take my dogs for a walk to wear them out and then they sleep for the four hours I am gone.

You probably do but just trying to think of anything that helps. xx