I have a 6 month old black labrador bitch.  She's adorable in most ways, but being a lab puppy, is pretty destructive!  Apart from tearing her soft toys to pieces, and eating pretty much everything she can get her teeth around (!) she's recently taken to tearing the wallpaper off the walls in the hall.  She only has run of the hall and no other rooms while we're at work, and I leave her with plenty of toys, including a kong which is stuffed with either peanut butter or vegemite (she loves this!) and biscuits.  We also have a dog door in the back door so she can go out when she wants to and has run of the garden also, so she's got it pretty good (I think). She's obviously not happy with me working and being away for part of the day and is getting bored.  It's hard as obviously i'm not around to be able to correct her behaviour, so presently she wouldn't know she was doing anything wrong.  She gets walked after work for 1/2 hour or so daily, mainly to the park nearby and is let off the leash to have a good run.  Anyway, my husband is just about at his wits end with this new terrible behaviour.  I've tried bitter spray but that doesn't seem to stop her.  What else can I do?  I love her to bits, but my husband is thinking otherwise...

Hi Blacklab

I have a dalmatian who is two in September.  He was an absolute so and so when he was a pup.  Wilko was owned by my mum up until about a year ago - she had to rehome him because of his terrible behaviour.  Wilko chewed through about four beds, some wallpaper, skirting boards and a huge chunk of wall.  In the end my mum gave up on him and was going to take him to a rescue home.  As my partner and I are animal lovers, we couldn't let that happen and took him home with us.
Up until a few weeks ago, Wilko kept chewing my sofa.  I have only one three seat sofa left - he ruined the two seater.  I posted here asking for help under the heading Naughty Damlmatian as I was at my wits end and even thinking about rehoming him myself (Wilko was even peeing up peoples legs)
I am pleased to say that finally I think the boy has grown up.  He is no longer a rival of Taz of Tazmania.  It may ease with age, if you and your hubby can put up with it for that long.
I also tried the anti chew spray.  It worked for about five minutes and stunk the living room out.  I know how frustrating it is - why do they do it?????

You say she has 1/2 hour walk when you get home from work, but nothing about before you go.  If she is not getting a good walk before you leave her that could well be part of the problem.

From your description I assume the hall goes out the back to the dog flap.  Could you restrict the area of the hall she has access to with a child gate while you are out.  It should minimise the damage if nothing else.

Hi Sandrah,

Thanks for your reply. 

Well, we realise that exercise is great for calming dogs down and taking away some of the pent up frustrations and boredom, but after reading and hearing a million times that you should be careful with larger breed dogs (ie labs) as their bones taken longer to harden than smaller, and problems with hip dysplasia, we have been a bit cautious about over-exercising her.  I have heard from vets (!) that you shouldn't walk/exercise them too much until they are 12 months old!!!!  Couldn't bear to restrict it until she was that old... she (and we'd) go crazy!!  So anyway, that's the reason for just the one walk per day, but maybe it will be worth a trial taking her out in the morning too.  Can't see the harm if she's on a leash and not tearing around..

Also, we've tried a wooden babygate in the past, but she ate through it!!  I think that wherever she has access to in the house she'll still be able to get to the wallpaper... and the house is rented, so we can't redecorate unfortunately.  That's another reason we need to stop this behaviour now, before she destroys the house!

Cheers

Hi Dawnann,

Thanks for your reply.  It's great that you re-homed him.  I couldn't imagine giving Lillie up and am a firm believer that "a dog is for life.." and feel it's really irresponsible of people to go into dog ownership blindly without fully doing their research, however even some of Lillie's behaviour has suprised me and I did a LOT of reading and talking to other dog owners before getting her.  I had never even heard of dogs tearing off wallpaper etc.  Can't believe it really that I hadn't.  In a way it makes me think that I've got a very badly behaved dog, which is sad. 

I think my main problem is that I don't believe my husband fully did HIS research, so is now really struggling with her and it's even getting to the point when he is enjoying his work more than his home life!!!!  That's got to be a problem!  I feel really badly for both of them as it's not really his fault, as she can be very boisterous, but then she's just a lab puppy and it's in their nature to be bonkers when they're puppies!!!!  I just really don't want to give her up...

How long is she left alone ?

Lucy
xx

Hi Lucy,

She is left for 7 1/2 hours during the day.  I feel terrible leaving her for so long, but I am working part-time, and it's either that or not have a dog for the whole of my working life which would be awful!

I did a lot of research into getting a dog before we got Lillie and found out a lot of people have dogs while working full-time and it works out ok.  I took time off work when we first got her to get the bonding established, which I think has happened pretty well. She is fully house trained and we have a crate for her which was used for her toilet training, as well as being used, still, for her bed at night.  She happily goes into this herself at night.

She is pretty used to the routine of me going off to work and she never tries to get out the gate and follow, or bark or anything when I leave the house.  I don't feel that what she is doing is separation anxiety really, just boredom.  Mind you i'm no "dog whisperer" so who knows!

Also when she's in a calm sleepy mood, she can be very affectionate, licking my face, hands etc and sleeps with her head on my chest with one paw on my tummy!  Like she's cuddling me.  It's lovely!  Just wish she didn't have the temper tantrums to go along with it!

I have a little Papillon puppy (14 weeks) who is never left on his own as I am at home all the time, he's in the same room as me most of the time, he has a Cavalier friend he plays with, and guess what, he's stripped a LOT of wallpaper too.(I wouldn't even have thought he could reach!!) A lot of my dogs  have done it as pups. They do grow out of it. We've decided it just isn't worth it though. No more wallpaper! We're currently stripping this room to paint it! (Well okay, hubby is, I'm at the computer, LOL!!) Problem solved :)

Marianne

Hi Goldmali,

Sounds a great solution, but it's a rented property, so we can't really redocorate!  I had thought when the problem started, that it would be the best solution (if it was our property..) but unfortunately can't be done.

As I write this, I am hoping that this little problem may be slowing down as she hasn't touched the wallpaper in a couple of days!  Fingers crossed!!!

Oh I can see your problem -and it must be a real worry as well when it isn't your own house. :( Well I do have a way that worked really well for us, it was passed on to me from a puppy buyer a few years ago. It's a bit messy but every puppy I have tried it with, it has worked. Whenever the puppy/dog is left alone, be it  at night or during the day for whatever reason, you give the puppy plenty of old newspapers and/or cardboard boxes.The puppy will be so busy ripping these apart that he won't have time to think about chewing wallpapers or wood or anything. It does of course mean you will be greeted by a virtual sea of ripped paper, but I found that was preferable to having real damage done, as it could just be cleared up. It worked extremely well for me.

Marianne

I had thought of this in the past, and had mentioned it to the husband, but he couldn't bear the thought of coming home to such a mess, (mind you I get home earlier than him, so I could do the cleaning up before he gets home!!)  Might give it at try, thanks!! 
One concern, I don't suppose it will be teaching her that whenever she sees newspapers/cardboard boxes in the future, she will think it must be ripped up... just picture all our future newspapers/magazines/boxes being torn into at every available opportunity!  Ahhh...! 

The Lab is not getting enough exercise or mental stimulation.As long as she is left alone for hours you will see this destructive behaviour continue.Recently one of our pups developed Pano??titis in the front leg caused through different growth of bone rates each side of the knee joint in her case anyway.The Vet said a big NO to road walking but said that any amount of soft walking through woodlands or meadows is fine for a 6month pup and now she gets about 2 hours daily,once in the morning and once in the afternoon,and she likes to lie in the grass sometimes for her own amusement.Sometimes advertised in yellow pages there are dog sitters or nursery creches that you can take your pup to for the time you are in work.
I think (but may be wrong) that Male Dalmations are worse than Labs to rear as they can be  so destructive and dirty in the home.We had one that used to piddle on the hall wall even though the door was wide open.He used to send my husband pear shaped, and in the end I had to re home him.

>Male Dalmations are worse than Labs to rear as they can be  so destructive and dirty in the home.

Unfair. This only happens if they're not given the attention and stimulation they need. They're very much 'people' dogs.

Hi laurasimms,

This is really helpful, thanks.  As I mentioned I am concerned about the amount of excercise she gets, so I might start walking her in the morning also and stick to softer grounds. I do agree that she is not getting enough stimulation and do feel guilty about it while I am at work, but at I am not able to quit my job for financial reasons (!) I am keen to seek out other solutions to our problem. 

Glad we didn't opt for a male dalmation in that case!!!  Our female lab is destructive enough!!

Will your pup recover from this problem in her front leg?  I hope it's nothing too serious.  I guess with exercise and the build up of muscle it will improve with time? 

All the best.

More frequent, shorter walks are better for joints than one long walk anyway.

Glad you think this may help,I know that ours is better on soft ground and the problems with the bones is much better now we have taken the pup off the roads.We are not intense about walking mile after mile, as the pup likes to roll around in the grass and leaves for half of the walk, but at least he is stimulated mentally.
I mentioned Dalmations as we had so many of them,no offence meant to the breed but some of the males are very destructive in the homes and dirty,but the bitches are a lot cleaner and make the most loving family pets and they are good housedogs too.

>some of the males are very destructive in the homes and dirty,

You must have been very unlucky, because my entire males, and those of my friends (stud dogs included) are perfectly clean in the house, and probably less destructive (if not left alone for hours) than the average labrador.
:)

Dear Blacklab,  I've just been reading your post and fully understand and sympathise with you.  However I feel so sad.  I had exactly the same thing with my lab .... again worked during day and my husband got so fed up.  I actually rehomed my gorgeous boy (Bruno) about 12 mths ago.  However not a single day goes by without me missing him so much.  Yours will grow out of it one day - persevere if you possibly can - as I thoroughly regret rehoming my Bruno and wish he was here with me again.  Lots of love.