Help - I have 3 year old Retriever bitch who is still chewing - destructive chewing!!  Her latest fetish is for the windowsills of their outside room in their enclosed yard.  She had a litter of 2 3 months ago and was fine whilst she was in whelp and caring for the pups, but has just started again.  I work 3 days per week and they have the run of the garage, their dog room and the yard - she's with her mother, sister and now daughter - so she's not lonely.  In desperation, I have caged her, but I really hate locking her up - any suggestions as to why she's doing this.  None of the others have been chewers - although too early to say about the pup.

She might not be lonely but she might be bored! It could be that she's more people-orientated than the others, and would rather interact with humans than the other dogs - and that could depend on her status within the group.

Dogs can certainly be lonely for human company no matter how much canine company they have.  They have been bred to appreciate the value of human company otherwise our relationship with them would not work :)  If you cannot reorganise your working life into, perhaps, more half days then I think you have to organise someone else to come in and spend time with them.  Whatever you do, I'm afraid, I think it totally unacceptable for a dog of this size to be caged for a whole day either physically or mentally.