i have an 8 month old male weimaraner. He has an excellent temprament and has been a joy to train.......however, over past few weeks he has been a nightmare when we go out. He's not alone as we have a 3yr old labrador bitch. He's started shredding the carpets and annhialating everything in sight. If we leave him in the kitchen he even climbs on the worktops and clears everything off the window sill. Any suggestions gratefully received.

It sounds like seperation anxiety, to me it does.

Do you make a big fuss of him when you go to leave or return? If so don't, just give a stuffed Kong or something and walk out no goodbye's, no pat on the head just act like nothing new the same when you come back. When you pat on the head or say good by, or come back all happy the dog feels like they are missing out on stuff.

Or you could just kennel him when you are not home and give him a Kong or something in the kennel to keep him occupied. This way he does not destroy your house or put himself in danger of getting hurt...Then slowley start leaving him out about 5 min one time, 10 min another ect and get longer and shorter each time. The reason for this is so he doesn't expect you back at a certain time span because it always varies. I did this with our dogs and it seems to work great. Tiva and Junior can be trusted to be left out all day if I want to. But I kennel Junior because of Taz (long storey).

This is just my opinion
Good Luck :)

Hello, your male weimi has just hit the Kevin stage and may be uncomfortable about being left.  It is a relatively easy situation to resolve.

I would strongly suggest you get hold of a book called Dogs are From Neptune by Jean Donaldson who delineates a programme to handle both mild and severe separation anxiety.

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Tohme, a family member is having problems with separation anxiety with an 8 year old lab.  They got him from a person that used to breed and show these labs, but due to a divorce needed to rehome most of the labs.
From my point of view, this lab has one of the nicest temperments I have come across...  But, I have seen the damage...chewed door knobs and etc.

My question is about the book you recommend.  Does the information apply to an older dog or is it mostly puppy stuff?

Any age dog.