by Trish King

Having a happy relationship with your dog means learning how to work together. If there´s a topic you´d like to see Trish cover, email editors@fetchthepaper.com.

Most dogs in our society are expected to spend a great deal of their time alone. Adult owners are at work and children are at school or at extra-curricular activities. Thus this most social of species is relegated to back yards or left inside a house, sometimes for 10 to 12 hours at a time.

Dogs are naturally family oriented and most would prefer to spend the vast majority of their time in the company of their humans or other dogs in their group. In years past, neighborhoods were more active, but now our suburbs are quiet from eight a.m. until six p.m. You can walk through a neighborhood during the middle of the day and hear only the sounds of birds singing. Oh yeah, and dogs barking. Some of the dogs are alarm barking; some are barking because they are lonely. Some lonely dogs don’t just bark, they bark and bark and bark. Or they rip up the house, the yard, or the garage. Are they just bored and lonely?

Guardians seem to be split on what their dogs are feeling, although what they are doing can be painfully obvious. Coming home to a destroyed house is no fun at all. Solving the problem requires some detective, and a lot of preventive, work.

Now what, Sherlock?

First, you have to figure out whether your dog is just bored and lonely, whether he has true separation anxiety, or whether he is in a state of panic when you leave. Let’s try out boredom, loneliness or lack of stimulation as a first theory. What are the clues?

• Your dog may bark, whine or howl when you leave, but usually stops after awhile and may, in fact, go to sleep
• She will chew on a Kong™ or other items left for her when you are not present. In fact, she may chew on pretty much anything she can get her mouth around, especially remote controllers, glasses, and toilet paper (ouch!).

Most dogs that destroy or damage property belong in this category. They’re usually under the age of two and a half or three, and more than anything else they just need more activity and structure. A typical example is a youngster of seven or eight months. A dog this age looks like an adult, but isn’t (like teenagers look like adult humans, but definitely aren’t!). Not your dog? Well, let’s try our next theory, separation anxiety. Clues please?

• Your dog may continuously bark, whine or howl when you leave. He may stop for a little while, then begin to vocalize again. Often there is a predictable pattern to this vocalizing.
• He will not chew on toys or eat food left for him.
• Most of the destruction is confined to exits or perceived exits (doorways, windows, etc.). Often he completely destroys doors, shreds curtains or breaks windows in his attempt to locate you.
• He may defecate or urinate near doorways or possibly on your bed.
• There may be pools of drool near exits and the hair on his front paws may feel stiff from constant licking.
• He may develop lick sores on feet, legs or flanks.

Real separation anxiety is not very common, thankfully. It can be extremely difficult to address, and behavior modification techniques are often not totally successful. Many guardians of dogs with separation anxiety must work on the problem for the dog’s entire life.

Now for our final theory, panic disorder or noise phobia. The clues, my dear Watson, are the following:

• Your dog may be very sensitive to sharp, loud noises. This tendency gets worse with age, so dogs over seven or eight sometimes seem to develop destructive or anxious behavior after years of being totally trustworthy.
• Sometimes something as innocuous as a truck backfiring can start the process, and thunderstorms might cause your dog to go into a state of panic that can last for hours.

Case solved: she’s bored out of her skull

Once you’ve figured out whether your dog is bored, anxious, or panicky, you can begin to tackle the problem. This month we’ll address boredom and lack of stimulation. Next month, we’ll discuss ways to deal with separation anxiety and panic disorder.

Obviously, the first thing to address is exercise. Many people don’t realize just how much exercise a dog needs, especially a young one. I have consulted with people who can’t figure out why their dog is going nuts at home, when as it turns out, the dog isn’t getting much exercise at all!

Often people assume dogs will exercise themselves if left in a yard. They don’t unless you’re there with them, throwing a ball or running around. Mostly, dogs sleep in yards until something exciting happens, at which point they investigate and bark. Young to middle-aged dogs need at least two good runs a day. They need to stretch their legs and work their muscles. They also need the mental stimulation of new vistas, rather than just the sight of the same old house and yard. Mental stimulation should also involve games, training or tricks. Dogs are intelligent animals and do need to use their brains.

Then there’s structure. Once your dog is used to getting his exercise, he must learn to relax during the middle part of the day, or at least a portion of it. There’s a huge temptation to under-exercise a dog during the week when you are at work, and then try to make up for it on weekends by going on long hikes and taking him everywhere you go. No wonder so many people experience the worst destruction on Mondays! So, it’s a good idea to build rest times into your dog’s days, whether they are Mondays or Sundays.

It’s also a good idea to crate train your dog. Dogs can stay comfortably in a crate for four hours or so, as long as they’ve been exercised before they’re put in (For crate training techniques, you can visit the Marin Humane Society’s website, www. marinhumanesociety.org.) If you have to leave your dog longer than four hours, it might be wise to have a dog walker visit midday, or keep your pup in a larger area. Another possibility is day care, especially for young dogs. Day care is usually not necessary for dogs over the age of three who have settled into your routine.

It’s also important to realize that your dog does not know that your prized coffee table isn’t a chew toy. To him, everything is subject to inspection and dogs investigate with their teeth. As I write this, our foster puppy is "investigating" pretty much everything he can. So far today he has chewed or attempted to chew presents under the Christmas tree, the coffee table, the couch, my arm, my leg, and the body parts of the other dogs in the household. "Destruction" could be his middle name. So, if we leave our foster puppy, we make sure he is left in a confined location for a brief period of time with mental and physical stimulation before and after.

Tune in next month: to see how we address separation anxiety and panic disorder.