Wife and I adopted a 1 year old Shepherd/Corgi mix 2 weeks ago. He’s great except he DESTROYS stuff when we leave him alone. He has bent the metal bars of his crate with his teeth for the last few days at the areas of the two doors (smart little bastard).
Tonight we went out to dinner and left him in the kitchen with the door closed. We removed anything from the countertops that would interest him. We even set up a camera and broadcast it on UStream so we could watch him from our phones…well he moved the camera when he went after the blinds on the door and window of the kitchen. DESTROYED 2 sets of blinds…
We’ve tried filling/freezing 3 Kongs with food/peanut butter to occupy him when we leave. No help. Giving him the room of the kitchen, no help…so HELP me! I know he just misses us but we gotta go to school/work!
Exhaust him. If you can afford to have someone come in during the day to take him for a walk, do it. Dogs that go to daycare or get to play with other dogs regularly are happy dogs.
Separation anxiety overall is tough. There are better people than I who can address that specifically but if you do the above that will go a long way.
X2 on tiring the pup out. He doesn’t just miss you…
I had a Black Lab / Husky mix that I adopted from the SPCA at about 10 mths old - wonderful dog, in the end, but the beginning was hell - she destroyed everything: shoes, books, stuff in the kitchen (one time, she ‘shook’ a bag of flour all over the kitchen, then proceeded to drink water and leave cement-y prints eveywhere…another time she got a hold of a box of freeze-pops and popped them all over a Spanish text book, I had to finish the semester with a chewed red, blue and orange stained book…another time she chewed the top off a bottle of vegetable oil and drank about .5L. The mess from both ends on the area rug was enough that I just rolled it up and tossed it off the balcony!)
Anyway, after research and talking to anyone I could, I ended up throwing a ball for the dog for an hour every morning, and an hour every night, plus a walk after school/work. The change was almost immediate - no more damage, and a much better behaved dog. I kept that routine up for about 3 yrs, until she calmed down a bit and I could back it off.
Best, best dog EVER, once figured out.
Your dog is bored, both physically and mentally. He needs at least an hour of vigorous exercise every day. Running, throwing a ball, catching a frisbee, not just a walk around the block. Also look into obedience classes or agility, so you can do things to work his mind as well.
Once you’ve exhausted him, if he still behaves this way, then you will have to research separation anxiety, but not until you are sure it’s not boredom.
Our solution has always been to have a second dog. We keep the dogs in the laundry room during the day and if one happens to be alone, the other chews the door moldings into pieces. I just scheduled a dental for one of my dogs during Thanksgiving week just because I knew people would be home to keep the other company. We have dachshunds, which tend to be pretty high strung and stubborn, similar to Corgis. I’m not sure there is enough exercise in the world to counter the wrath of an angry, lonely dachshund.
I’ll definitely echo the exercise. At the beginning our first rescue shepherd/husky cross chewed stuff but just needed more exercise. Our dogs get a 45 minute walk/run in the morning (or a good session with the ball at the dog park), another 30 minutes at lunch and another 20 at night and they are great.
Unfortunately it also takes time. Apparently ten minutes of obedience time is like an hour of exercise to them because they have to concentrate so hard, so you might want to start with that as well.
Lots of exercise as stated and try crate training him. We crate trained the 6 month old doberman we adopted almost two years ago. The crate became his safe place and he chose to sleep in it. We no longer have a crate for him as he’s calmed down alot and just chills out on his bed whether we’re home or not.
As I literally just got back from a 7mile hike with my 5 and 13 yr old dogs I’ll also suggest exercise b/c they’re curled up by the fire sleeping like angels now.
Seriously though, our older dog was a rescue and she does have some seperation anxiety that, at one point, resulted in her basically chewing her way through drywall - fun times! Exercise has been key (the saying ‘a tired dog is a good dog’ is around for a reason) but also as she’s gotten more and more used to our schedule she understands that we’re not going to abandon her. If we are going to go out for a while we take the dogs on a long walk or run and then give them their Kongs and say “we’ll be back.” It took the older dog some time to understand that routine but now she knows when we leave it’s a good thing because she gets the Kong and that’s usually the only time she gets the Kong.
The other thing you can try is picking up some ‘Rescue Remedy’ at a pet store. It’s an herbal drop that helps calms dogs down. Our older dog is terrified of thunderstorms, fireworks, etc so if we know a storm is blowing in we give her a few drops and it helps calm her down significantly.
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!! We’re gonna try and take him walking as much as possible, once in the morning and once at night.
Left him alone for an hour and a half tonight. Same situation in the kitchen. Changed position of the camera so he couldn’t move it. Watched him off and on throughout the time. He paced a lot back and forth…into the crate, up on the counter/door, etc. We turned up the volume on the camera and he cried quite a bit (volume was off last night). He laid down for about 10 minutes we know of, possibly more.
Just gonna take some time with this guy. He was a rescue pup from Joplin, MO so he could be a tornado dog…don’t know much about his past.
We adopted a dog that was great when we were around but she had a really big separation anxiety problem. She was also bending the steel out of her cage. We tried the going only out for a minute and work our way but that didnt work too well. We told our vet and they proposed some anti anxiety meds for one month, we did and she was fine after that, she only needed it for one month and anxiety was gone. Good on you for working on it with your dog, many people give up and bring the dog back to the shelter. Good luck
It sounds more like he’s more stressed than he’s bored, especially with him being new to your home.
The two things I would work on are building a solid routine and giving him a job. Those two things comfort dogs and help relieve their stress. The routine is just making sure important things happen at the same time of day, every day… things like being fed or going for a walk. Something happening unexpectedly or something normal not happening cause stress. Giving him a job is just giving him something that has to do every day. If he enjoys playing ball, it can be chasing the ball. It can also be things like having to sit or lay down while waiting for you to put food in his bowl. Just simple things to bring order to the chaos.
Now with that said, some dogs are SO anxious that they can’t calm down long enough for these changes to matter, or they are so wound up, you can’t do these things… in those cases, anti-anxiety meds can calm them down long enough to adapt to their new surrounding. The dogs I’ve seen that needed meds were typically pretty bad though… as in willing to injure themselves in their frenzy. I think it would be worth taking some obedience classes with him and talking with the trainer about his behaviour and getting that one-on-one opinion.
Also keep in mine, since he’s a rescue, he may also have other baggage from his previous life that is causing or adding to this heightened anxiety. You’ll probably never find out if that’s a factor or not, so just keep that in mind if you are doing everything you can and nothing seems to work.