Destructive Doggie

[ArwensMom]

Hi I'm new to this forum and I'm looking for help from rotti owners. My Arwen is 16 months old and she is the sweetest most wonderful rott I've ever met except for one little thing. We are now on couch number four due to her mutilating. I am a vet technician and we've already diagnosed her as having separation anxiety. She is on a prescription called Clomicalm (aka Puppy Prozac) that seemed to be doing the trick but yesterday morning she went under the cover I'd had to put on the couch to cover up her handiwork and went to town. This occurred in the hour between my husband leaving for work and me getting up. I was devastated. We'd been so long without an incident (and she doesn't strictly limit herself to furniture, by the way) that we'd cut her Clomicalm to once a day instead of twice daily a week previous. Obviously she wasn't ready for that. I talked to the doctor and he advised me that she may just be on this drug lifelong. I don't relish the thought of that as she is already being treated for hypothyroidism and is on a prescription diet due to crystals in her bladder but I guess that's the way it is. I've tried everything I can think of: I've put bitter apple on the couch; I've put bitter apple on her tongue and paired that with a strong "off" in regards to the couch; I've set her up and sprayed her with a squirt bottle when she goes after it; I've used a remote spray collar; I've told her "no", "off", "bad" . . . nothing is working. And its not as if she has a lack of things of her own to chew on when we're not home. We do agility once a week so she has something to do. We teach her all sorts of tricks and what not to stimulate her mind. We give her stuffed kongs when we leave. I love this dog but I am absolutely at my wit's end. I guess I'm just looking for some support, or advice, or anything. I love this dog but it's so depressing and discouraging to think that nothing I do works. Has anyone had any luck trying something that I haven't already?

[Maryn306]

Crate her or gate her off into a 'safe' room when you cannot watch her, don't give her the opportunity to destroy.

[groupieindenial]

Have you thought about crating her when she can not be supervised? My dog has never chewed anything up of mine (cept a shoelace off a shoe) and I still don't trust him enough to leave him uncrated while no one is home.

[2rotties2luv]

I've crated all of my rotties when they're left alone and have never had any destructive chewing occur.

[ArwensMom]

Thank you for your quick responses. They (she and our Shihtzu) are already crated at night. My husband and I both work full time. . . when would she have a chance to be a dog? For the record that's what I've been having to do the last day or so as I haven't had a chance to anything about the couch yet and I think it would be irresistable to her right now. But on a regular basis this would mean at least, at the very least, 18 out of 24 hours in her crate. Isn't that excessive?

[Maryn306]

Yes, that is excessive. During the day, when you are at work, can you have someone take the dogs out for a good long walk/romp? Even if you hire a dog walker. You could also look into good 'doggy daycares' in your area for a few days a week.

[groupieindenial]

If thats the case, then maybe a nice sized dog run, with proper shelter is in order here.

[ArwensMom]

I wish my neighbors were the kind of neighbors who would walk our dogs. Unfortunately, they are the kind of neighbors who allow their children to throw things at, tease, and feed things through the fence to our dogs. Which, incidentally, rules out leaving her in the yard when we're not home. I used to work for a doggie day care facility, and the thing I miss most about that job is that we as employees were allowed to bring our dogs to work with us. There is one where we live now, but it's very far away. All the same, I think I will at least look into it. She is a very social dog and I think it would be great for her. Thanks for the suggestion. We used to be able to take our dogs to work with us at the hospital, but some employees were abusing the priviledge.

[Judi W]

Put in a kennel run that is set away from the yard fence and make sure you gates (to yard and kennel) are padlocked.

[2rotties2luv]

As an alternative, perhaps you can leave her out of her crate at night when you're home, and then crate her during the day when you're gone. I've always crated my rotties when I'm at work and have had no adverse effects that I can see. I give them plenty of attention and excercize when I'm home. Lots of others here also crate their rotties when at work.

[groupieindenial]

My friend has a dog with really really bad seperation anxiety. I mean, she would chew through the drywall if she was confined to the room in the basement even. She used to have her neighbor come take her once in a while during the day, but she says what helped in the end was more routine. Make her days as routine as possible, and that should help settle her.

[majicka]

I crate my dogs only when I'm gone not at night, but the worse mine do is steal and stash various 'people' items.

[RottiMomCT]

What about attaching an ExPen to her crate? Give her more space to move about and keeps your stuff (and her) safe...

[JaniceH]

I don't know if it would work, but if you can't keep her safely penned somewhere, then what about using DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheremones). You plug it into a socket and it lets out something similar to a lactating bitches scent. It is supposed to calm anxious dogs.

I used it for a short time when my Teazle was a puppy and it worked wonders. I only used it when she was left alone at night (I was very poorly at the time), and she was weaned off it very easily.

[ArwensMom]

I've never heard of "DAP" before . . . where would you get it?