Hey Woofa’s,

Have you ever looked up Dog Shaming on the net?

Did you sit and laugh at the sad dog faces and what they were guilty of?  I have!!!

This week I can add Billy to that list!!!!!

Our Dear Mr Billy has been causing all this destruction and it’s so unlike him.   It’s driving us a bit mental actually.

Billy is 6 and 3/4 and  he’s been a very calm laid back dog thus far.

He’s done the usual puppy destruction, which is different to the destruction I’m talking about here.  But he’s never done this before.

 

WHAT DESTRUCTION HAS BILLY CAUSED?

Roughly over the last three months Billy has – 

• Shredded the back of our front door 3 times ( it looks like a werewolf has tried to get out);
• The architrave has been eaten along the front door;
• Scratched at our bottom windows (we have long windows that are about 30cm off the floor);
• He gets his foot caught in the curtain (while scratching at the window) and rips the rod right out of the wall (we have 2 front windows without curtains currently);
• Last night he jumped up on our lounge, ripped a whole in the top of it while scratching at our lounge room blinds and put holes in three of them;
• Christmas Eve he escaped out our bedroom window – he had to open the window, rip through the fly screen and squeeze himself under the bars.
• Barked aggressively at a dog he’s seen many, many times before without incident.

This might not seem like much but to us it is!

He’s NEVER done anything like this before.

 

WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS?

We had to get to the bottom of what changed.  This became a process we had to go through.

I want to share this process with you so you can understand the WHY of your dog’s destruction.

 

ASK YOURSELF THIS?

 

a) When did the change in behaviour start?

By asking this question it will give you a starting point.

It doesn’t have to be exact!  It’s just to give you a rough idea of what may have happened around that time, to cause the change.

For us it started around 3 months ago.

 

b) What happened around the time of the change in behaviour?

We went back to an incident we witnessed!  At that time we didn’t think too much of it.

Dean mentioned he saw next door’s cat sitting on the fence antagonising Billy.  Billy was going off his tree at this cat that was just sitting there staring at him.

This cat had been seen under our pergola and in our backyard as well.

 

c) What destruction is being done?

It may seem a little bizarre to ask this, but knowing what kind of destruction will give you a clue into your dog’s thinking.

Billy’s destructive behaviour, when broken down, is all about getting out of the front of the house.

He’s scratched at the front door, he scratches at our front windows and successfully gotten out the window (I left it open an inch)!

Look for a pattern in the destruction, what’s it trying to tell you?

Is your dog bored, does it need more mental stimulation, more exercise or is something else causing them to do the destruction?

Billy’s behaviour says he wants out of the front of the house, where he doesn’t have access to.

 

d) What time of day and/or night is the destruction happening?

Knowing this can also give you guidance on what is causing your dog to react destructively.

We can still leave Billy during the daylight hours and he’s all calm.

His destruction happens at night when we’re out.

Although, he has had times during the middle of the night where he’ll jump up barking and go to the window.

 

e) What is causing the destruction?

This is a bit of guess work!   You’ve got to try to think like a dog as much as possible.

What is triggering your dog to make it destructive?

In Billy’s situation, one night while we were in our bedroom, we heard this little bell tinkle.  It went over next door’s side fence (which is adjacent to ours) ran along our front garden and across the front lawn.

Billy went ballistic and stuck his head at the window, started barking and scratching at it.

That was our answer!

This little cat has been driving him nuts.  Billy doesn’t like cats, that’s now clear.

However, I didn’t know this before this incident because he’s never behaved like this before.

 

f) Can you trace the destructive behaviour to the cause?

Over Christmas our neighbours went away (which they’re entitled to do), causing their younger cat to go wandering more at night.

All of Billy’s destruction happens at night.

So, what he’s trying to do is to go after it.  Hence, all the destruction at the front of the house.

He can come and go out his doggy door into the backyard but  he’s got no access to the front yard.

 

g) What can you do to stop the destructive behaviour?

Well by now you should have a bit of an idea of why the behaviour is happening!

Now you can put measures in place to prevent further destruction.

 

WHAT WE DID FOR BILLY!

1. The bedroom windows are no longer open at the bottom;
2. Dean is in the process of putting a hard plastic on the back of our front door;
3. When we replace the curtains with blinds, the blinds will be open up far enough so he can’t reach them;
4. We purchased Adaptil spray, that is meant to give off the pheromones of the birthing mother, to calm him down;
5. I have informed the neighbour (nicely, because we get on with them) that Billy doesn’t like their younger cat and WHY he doesn’t;
6. If push comes to shove, at night if we go out, we’ll have to leave our bedroom door closed so he doesn’t have access to those windows;
7. Dean has put something like a Nanny Cam in our bedroom, usually Billy sleeps.  WE can check on him while we’re out.  We know he’s in destruction mode when he’s unsettled and pacing around our room back and forth from the window and out the door.
8. We are also going to go through desensitisation, so we’ll go out at night locally for an hour, check him on the camera and if he’s okay, stay out a bit longer etc.  Each time he’s okay we’ll extend the time.
9. Worst case scenario we’ll have to have one of our parents over to Billy sit if we have to go out.

 

This is an ongoing process for us!

While the cat goes out at night Billy responds to it.

However, the other night we also had people yelling and screaming in our street.  This went for a good 30 mins which set Billy off as well.  He was doing what we asked him to do in that instance, guarding the castle.

We also found out the dog he barked aggressively at, lives with a cat and has cat smell all over it.  This may have caused him to change his behaviour towards this dog.

 

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

Dogs can be destructive.

Through their destruction we can learn a lot about what they’re trying to tell us.

Billy doesn’t like next door’s younger cat and will do all he can to try to get to him.

As responsible dog owners we’re trying to do everything in our power to calm him down so he goes back to being non-responsive.

We hope this process has helped you with understanding your dog’s destruction.

 

IN THE COMMENTS BELOW – BILLY WOULD LIKE TO KNOW – WHAT DESTRUCTION YOUR DOG HAS CAUSED AND HOW YOU RECTIFIED THE PROBLEM?

 

Cheers