Does it only happen when you are out?
I'm wondering about seperation anxiety. My lab, Sapphi, used to get up to all sorts of things while I was out. She'd shred papers, boxes of tissues,pulled up rugs, chew door frames etc. I always put it down to her being an adolescent Lab. I'd been told alot that they chew alot and cause untold damage so I didn't think much of it, apart from not being very happy with her.
I stopped leaving her in the lounge for fear of what else she may get up to, and started leaving her in the hall. One day I came home and she had pulled up the hall carpet, from under four doorways, and ripped it to shreds. This was a heavy duty hessian backed carpet which was very tough and I couldn't believe how she'd put a 3ft rip in it as well as tearing bits off.
I was telling our trainer about how naughty she'd been, and she suggested that she was actually having seperation anxiety rather than being naughty.
Alot of the problems came from the fact that I am at home the majority of the time. She was my first pup and in all honesty I didn't ever do anything but play with her while she was asleep and only did my housework etc when she was asleep, which was totally the wrong thing to do I found out later. I also stopped using her crate when she was six months old, in hindsight I think that was too young and since then I've kept my pups in it alot longer.
I managed to rectify her seperation anxiety over a couple of months. I used a DAP Defuser, some herbal anxiety drops and activity toys. I had the DAP Defuser on continually, and in the hour before leaving I gave her some of the drops. The activity toys were a stuffed Kong, Buster Cube, other toys with a similar idea to the Kong stuffed with her favourite foods and things like a cardboard box filled with screwed up newspaper with treats hidden amongst the paper and some inside a newspaper parcel. I also limited where she had access to. I had been told that sometimes dogs get stressed if they have the run of the house as some dogs feel that while their owner is out its their responsibility to look after the home, so if they have access to the whole house they will run manically from room to room checking everything is ok and they work themselves up into a frenzy. So limiting them to one room can help, as well as reducing the amount of distruction that can be done.
I ended up leaving Sapphi in the entrance lobby and I put her crate there partly covered and left the door open so that she could retreat there if she wanted. To begin the door frames were a little bit chewed but within a week or so that stopped. After a couple of months, once she seemed to have settled, we started to leave her in the hall, again with her crate there for if she needed it, and she was fine. Now she's almost three and she's as good as gold and stays in the lounge when we're out.
Keep the kong, buster cube or anything else you find to use only for when you are going out. Sapphi ended up getting so excited about the kong coming that she didn't bat an eyelid at being left as she was so focused on her kong/toy.
Make sure you leave and return with the minimum of fuss. No long goodbyes and saying be a good boy, give him the toys and leave. When you return ignore him until he calms down and stops trying to get your attention. Thats a tough one, I found that particularly hard but it did help.
When you are at home, put some distance between you part of the time, so when you leave the room where he is shut the door so he can't follow you. If he stresses about that start with a minute and work your way up. Make sure you don't go back to him if he's barking or crying, wait for him to stop before returning even if he just pauses to draw breath.
I recently compiled a list of things to give a bored Lab to do for someone at training,alot of them compiled from suggestions on here, some of these might help Charlie.
1. Rotate his toys. Don’t let him have all of them at once, and swap them around. He’ll think he’s getting new toys and be more interested in them.
2. Kongs – stuffed and packed in tightly. Use lite soft cheese or peanut butter, together with bits of his kibble, chunks of cheese, bits of ham.
3. Kongs – together with kibble and maybe ham etc, fill with grated cheese and pop it into the microwave just enough to melt the cheese. Allow it to cool before
giving it to Charlie. It will take Charlie longer to get anywhere with it and make his brain work!
4. Kongs – if he likes fruit and veg, mash up some bananas and add bits of apple, carrot or whatever he likes, but never grapes (they’re toxic for dogs). Popped the
stuffed kong in the freezer for a few hours until frozen. Has the same effect as microwaving, making it longer for Charlie to get into. With all the kongs he should
work out for himself that if he drops it on the floor it dislodges the food which falls out. If you don’t see him doing this after a few weeks you could maybe drop it
on the floor yourself to see if he gets the hang of it.
5. Plastic bottle filled with a handful of kibble. Stuff a chunk of cheese in the top tightly, which he’ll have to work at getting out to get the kibble.
6. Keep egg boxes and loo rolls. Fill them up with treats, put them into a bigger box hidden amongst newspaper for them to rip apart as while he finds the treats.
7. Stuff toilet rolls with newspaper and treats and give him a few at a time.
8. Wrap up a larger treat or a couple of dog biscuits in several sheets of newspaper scrunched up into balls.
9. The Buster Cube – here’s a website that explains how it works
http://www.pets.f9.co.uk/shop/media/buscub.html You can buy them here
http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=183&pf_id=3237 or you will probably find them elsewhere on the net too. You can get simple balls that
dispense the treats too, but the buster cube makes them think harder. Be warned it is noisy so best used when you’re out!
You can get a DAP defuser online, although I've recently discovered its actually cheaper at my vets which surprised me. The anxiety drops I use are The Company of Animals Anxiety Drops.
Hope this helps a bit.
