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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Elaine has been training dogs professionally for 14 years. She is a CPDT as well as an endorsed member of NADOI. She is also certified in narcotics detection and is one half of a (twice) certified explosives detection team - the other half being her Dutch Shepherd Spawn, who is also titled in several protection sports. Elaine is the owner of Canine's Best Behavior, a Los Angeles based training company, offering Basic Manners, CGC, K9 Games (soon!) as well as behavior modification for aggression fears phobias etc.
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11/17/2006
My family has a one and a half year old goldendoodle. She is a great family pet, and has recently started a most annoying behavior. It appears as though she may be suffering from separation anxiety, however her destructive behavior is not the typical chewing on household items, doors, or windows. To my knowledge, she does not howl or bark when we leave either. Her items of choice are food or sometimes my daughter's things (like crayons or colored pencils). Mostly, it is items that are at the back of the kitchen counter, such as: fruit, bagged bread, or even an unopened bag of candy. We found a half-eaten nectarine just the other day when we came home from a movie! Usually, she is not left home alone for more than a couple hours a day since my husband and I work opposite schedules. We always leave plenty of food and water in her dishes when we go, as well as toys that are appropriate for her to chew on. Are we really dealing with separation anxiety? Or is it something more sinister, like an addiction to people food? (thester12, Alaska)
Well, I eat when I get nervous too!
The pencils that most likely smell like your daughter may be signs of separation anxiety.
But the counter surfing may simply be her way of doing something while you are gone. Counter surfing is a hard behavior to extinguish because it's self rewarding "I'm tall, I'm hunting, BUTTER!" Funny yes, but if that bag of candy were chocolate she could have had a vet visit.
Here are some things that I would try:
Deny her access to the kitchen/completely clear the kitchen counters of anything that she could snack on.
Make sure that the toys you le
ave her have something REALLY fun to work on inside them like Kong paste or liverwurst. Preferably something smelly that will draw her to it. A biscuit won't cut it here. But a Kong Time might. It a time released Kong machine that randomly shoots out kongs for up to an 8 hour day. If her breakfast is stuffed inside of those 4 kongs with a hunk of liverwurst at the back of them....suddenly those counters are not so interesting anymore!
Make sure she has plenty of exercise prior to you leaving, tired dogs worry less about their owners leaving them.
No big love festivals when you come home. Greet her how you want her to be.
Use a Comfort Zone plug in. Odorless to us, but to them smells like a lactating female dog "Mom's here all is well" Aromatherapy for your doodle!
Since someone is always home you may want to work on some out of sight exercises. Dogs Home Alone by Abrantes has some great exercises in it. But most definitely make a point of being away from her while you are home every day. It will help.
If she also surfs while you are there, then we can talk about exploding cheese. But I think I would try the above approaches first.
Hope that helps!
Elaine Allison CPDT NADOI
Canine Behavior Consultant
Canine's Best Behavior
1.866.K9s.Best
www.caninesbestbehavior.com
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