This is a message sent to anther conference(dogs, but not dog ciponference. With her permission I am posting it here to see if anyone can help.
So please, help. Will send her the replies and also give her the link to hopefully register and join in herself.
Lea :)
We have a GSD which we got just over 14 months ago when he was a puppy. He was house trained and generally behaved well towards the children and the rest of the family. Most days he would go to work with my husband. Hubby works on his families farm. Now I had my moments with the dog. For example of Friday I put out some meat to defrost and he stole it. Ruined dinner. He also ate some sweets that I had saved over Christmas and was in the process of giving to someone else. Not to mention naughty things he has done in the past (chewed and destroyed a 'Game Boy', chewed doors, stole food from cupboards, chewed cutlery, shoes, remotes, and childrens toys). But he is a dog at the end of the day we loved him. So we were willing to put up with some things. However, yesterday I took the children shopping. Hubby had left the dog at home (because his Land Rover is in the garage for mending. And he wasn't allowed to put him into the car he had borrowed). I had taken the dog out for a quick walk. And put him into the kitchen whilst we went out. Making sure the doors were shut etc. And two of the doors were secured with locks. But we came back home to utter chaos. Amongst the usually chewing etc. He had opened one of the doors and got upstairs. And pooed on my 3 year old daughters bed. He then went and urinated all over my bed. My lovely King Size mattress, which is just over a year old, is ruined IMO. It will never be the same again. And I am devastated. My question is why would he (dog) do such an awful thing? Can anyone shed any light on this please? About half of the mattress is badly stained whereas before it was immaculate. It's one of those modern mattresses (top of it's range when we bought it and cost a fortune), latex covered, and shouldn't be turned over (the other side is fairly hard) The duvet had to be thrown away. And the sheets and duvet cover have been boiled in the wash.

My husband has been talking to another farmer who is willing to take the dog from us and look after him. And I am inclined to say yes. Though my 13 year son is very upset at the thoughts of losing his favourite pet. But I cannot tolerate any more damage.  :O(((((

He sounds like a teenager who has been allowed to get away with a bit too much Lea ;) There may also be a bit of separation anxiety in there as well. The whole family could try a 24 hour ignore ..whre they totally ignore the dog (except for feding him) for 24 hours..no eye contact or interaction at all. After that they could implement the NILIF regime (Nothing In Life Is Free). With this they need to get him to *do* something for them for everything.

So , for example ..before he is let into the garden he is made to sit. Before being allowed back in he has to sit. They could make him give a paw before petting him .....there are loads of things you can do. Everything to reinforce THEIR position over him without use of force.

Of course there is always training clubs as well , to back up what they are doing at home

Just my few thoughts...

Melody :)

Hi
sounds like typical seperation anxiety(sp?). I would suggest maybe giving him more mental stimulation e.g obedience training,agility etc to wear him out mentally and physically and using maybe a kong and a crate when he is left alone.
Good luck, Archer

Hi, I definetly know how you feel. I had this with my boxer for 8 months it got to the point where I was coming home and just crying. She would eat contents of fridge, open cupboards,poo,wee.Had to put lock on kitchen door so she couldnt get to the rest of the house. We thought about having to let her go many times but 10 yr old would not let it happen. Thankfully I finally bought a crate. What a godsend. I now come home to the house how I left it.HEAVEN! We all seem to get along much better now as we are not always angry with her. Perhaps you should try one. It is never too late as Roxy was 16 months when we bought it.

This dog is a teenager.......

This means that his hormones are flying around, he needs training, and plenty of exercise, both physical and mental.

The stealing things is not his fault.......trust me, there are very very few dogs out there who wont steal food if its left lying around. You need to train yourself and your family NOT to leave ANYTHING in his reach (yep, i DO know how hard that is, ive got a lurcher!)

Chewing is another thing that dogs need to do......he NEEDS to chew, if the wrong things are lying around, then they will get chewed......simple as, dont leave stuff around if you dont want it chewed.

The peeing/pooing on beds, trashing house......

Id be pretty willing to bet that this dog is rarely left alone for any length of time....brilliant for him most of the time, but what about when he DOES have to stay on his own? Suddenly he is all alone, all his family are gone. Imagine if you left a 6 year old on his own, suddenly, a particularly clingy 6 year old, who had never been without his mum an dad before?

This dog needs to be TAUGHT to be alone...he doesnt have the coping skills naturally, being alone is a very unnatural thing for a dog to deal with.

This has to be done slowly and patiently, rewarding the dog with things like filled Kong toys whilst he is alone, using a DAP diffuser, slow short sessions of just five minutes at first, building up to longer periods.

A crate would probably be a good idea, although expensive, and you will have to take time out to train him that the crate is a lovely place to be, and NOT a punishment. If you get him used to a crate, by feeding him in there, giving him treats in there etc, then you wil have somewhere u can safely leave him, without fear of him damaging anything.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that your dog has messed on beds or wrecked the house to get at you in anyway, its not spite, its distress at being left.

The only other thing i pick up on is that if you do value a mattress more than a dogs life, then it might well be better to rehome the dog.....sorry, but to me my dogs are more important than any soft furnishings!

Em

I've not had this experience with a dog but I agree with Em that a strong part of the post is that the main problem is that the house is being ruined.  If someone is very houseproud don't get a dog or a cat - get a goldfish.  I'm not being harsh here, its a fact of life.  My one year old yellow sofa is now black!  My carpets have muddy paw prints, my bed smells of dog.  I don't care, it's only a house with things in it that can be replaced.  Copper and Harley could never be replaced and they come first.

I think if the owner of this dog is stressed out about the dog ruining things, perhaps that is being transferred to the dog and making him worse?  Only my thoughts here of course.

CG

I had the same problems with my dalmation, was frightened to come home to see what damage she had done then I bought a crate, Godsend. I can now go out and know that the house is exactly like I left it. I bought mine on E-Bay (new) for £50 its very large and has 2 doors and a plastic tray fitted inside for the bed. I put in a blanket and always give her a bone/treat to chew on in it when I leave her. £50 is much cheaper than what my kitchen cupboards, flooring, skirting boards cost (which she chewed)

My 10 month old boxer today wee'd on my son's mattress while we were out. Brand new it was too! We only had it delivered 3 days ago! He's chewed the telephone too, and if there's an opportunity to pinch food, he'll do it!  But to me, this is just teenage behaviour, its not the end of the world, and he'll come through it, and so will we. I love him to bits and would never be without him - its never crossed my mind that I should re home him, I reckon he's getting his revenge for being an absolute angel for the first 6 months of his life - we are paying now! :)  I'm not offering any advice, as others have done that, just really saying that it happens, be patient, they're still young, and you're not alone :)

I think most people expect some disruption/damage with a dog, or a young dog at the very least, and if everything goes swimmingly, then excellent, but there's usually a hiccup or two along the way :)

Our girl is exactly the same (besides the weeing/pooing part) she suffers terrible with seperation anxiety. My house is a complete wreck as she has chewed whatever she could get her teeth into, she has ate whatever is on show.
Tell them not to get mad i just cleaned it up and learned from my mistakes i.e leaving things out or not securing her properly. She has setted down now and isn't half as much trouble thank god! because we are moving into a brand new house next month.
Tell your friend to join because i wouldn't have known what to do if i hadn't read these pages and i would be in the same position now!

Sarah

I would say this is seperation anxiety and if the dog is used to going everywhere with their owner it wont know any different as to why it can't go. 

I have a 3 yr old lab that was from a rescue centre and we had problems in the beginning with him chewed shoes emptied bins scratched plaster from the walls stripped the hallway of wall paper(saved me a job) :D :D but there was never any question of re-homing him we got a behaviourist in who advised to leave plent for him to do ie kong chews etc build up the time he was left ignore him completely when we got home no eye contact or anything then check the house for destruction etc wait 15mins and then reward good behaviour ignore bad behaviour. We was told it is often to see how high they can rank in the pack and basically the dog needs to know his/her place.  I know its very hard I was often in tears at his bad behaviour and its very hard to ignore them  but with perseverance sp? it does pay off Jazz was alot better within just one month.  Another thing to remember is never to send them to bed when they have been bad they need their own space were they feel safe.  Hope this helps

Michelle :)

Thanks everyone. My friend has read all the replys, and hopefully will register and ask questions her self!!!!! :)
Lea :)

hello,
i have 2 staffs, the eldest being 2 his son being 11 weeks.
New christmas boots and a new christmas leather handbag have been ruined..... but its my fault. Having taz (the eldest) obviously i didn't have to put things up all the time and i'vw gotten laps over it, having those little puppy teeth back in the house, and with the boots and bag reminder i realise that i need to be more careful and until he is older ensure to put things that i don't want chewed out of reach!!

My view is that when a dog is a pup, all chewable things are kept away from the pup, or else the pup is kept away from the tempting things.

The pup is taught to chew Kongs and chewies and starts to learn what is acceptable to chew and what is not.

Inevitably there WILL be some times when owner forgets to tidy away the Tv remote or that new pair of shoes. If this happens, just try and view it as a sacrifice :D

After adolescence, most dogs who have been kept away from all tempting things chewable are then able to be trusted as long as they are also getting enough mental and physical exercise, stimulation and are healthy.

I do agree that the GSD sounds worried about his owners leaving him and the separation anxiety possibility does need to be looked into :)

I wish them luck and hope they register on here for some more help and tips.

Lindsay