Anxiety and Destructive Behavior?
I have sort of an interesting problem with my dog, and would love to hear what everyone else thinks.
I have 2 small dogs, the problem dog being Cleo, the older one (8 years old, beagle x poodle). Since she was a puppy she's been left alone at home for several hours at a time with free run of the house and has never had any problems at all (aside from a few chewed shoes when she was a puppy).
However, it's a different story when she is left alone at our cabin. My family and I went out to a friends for dinner and left the 2 dogs alone in the cabin. We came home a few hours later to absolute destruction; all the jackets were ripped down, chewed table legs, shredded papers and boxes. Basically anything that was within her reach that could be destroyed was destroyed.
The next time we went out we put her in the screened front porch, which was ineffective; she shredded all the screens she could reach and ripped holes in the couch.
Finally we decided we needed to kennel her and got one of those wire kennels with the plastic bottom so she can see all around. This time, she shredded the towel we gave her, attempted to chew on the bars, and started going at the plastic bottom until she ripped half of it up and made herself bleed.
I figure that because she's used to being outside all the time at the cabin that she doesn't want to be locked up, but the destructive behavior and anxiety is very out of character. I don't want her to give herself a heart attack or something, but I am at a loss as to what I should do.
Thanks!
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