How am I supposed to respond to a destructive teenage doodle?

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Sophie is one year old and up until a few months ago I was able to leave her alone and not crated (I started doing this around 6 months, and she was fine for a few months, until about two months ago). When I am at work she destroys my things. Over the past few months she's destroyed hats, scarves, gloves, shoes (two pairs and a boot), paper things like magazines or newspaper, basically whatever she can get her furry little paws and sharp little teeth on. Sometimes she does it while I'm home and I don't catch her until it's too late.

 

As a result, I've started crating her again when I go. The problem with this is that my neighbour has complained that she hears her crying during the day. She says sometimes she cries for hours. I found this really surprising as she never cries when I leave, and isn't crying when I come home at lunch time or after work. I had no idea she was doing it.

 

So then I tried giving her more exercise in the morning. This week I took her to the park for up to an hour before I left for work. And believe me this was no easy feat. I do not enjoy getting out of bed at 6:30am anytime, least of all to head out in the sub freezing snowy weather to spend an hour throwing a ball in the park. But this is what I've been doing, thinking that the extra exercise would tire her out and she wouldn't be so destructive during the day. The first few days I did this and crated her during the day. She seemed fine, not a peep from the neighbour. Then the next few days I tried leaving her out of the crate for part of the day, to see what would happen and if the exercise made a difference. The first time she destroyed my knitting project, and chewed up my knitting needles. Fair enough, I stupidly left them in her reach. Yesterday I thought I had made sure there was nothing in her reach, and left out extra toys, the antleers, nyla bones, etc for her enjoyment. I give them kongs, and treat balls. But I still came home to one of my winter boots being destroyed. This, along with the knitting project, really made me mad.

 

So, fine, I will stick with the extra exercise and crate routine for now. But my problem is, I am not sure how I am supposed to respond to her when I find she's destroyed something after the fact. Is it the same as when you are potty training them and they don't remember? Shouldn't a one year old dog have more memory than that? shouldn't she be able to connect that mom is really unhappy when she finds her things chewed up? I can't just pretend like it didn't happen, and I can't laugh it off anymore as it has gotten really frustrating.

 

When will this end and how do I teach her to stop? 

[Adina P]

You have to catch her in the act.  Maybe a web cam with you just around the corner? I have no idea...chances are she'd drop what she's doing the second she heard you coming.  You can always try throwing in a morning here and there without the exercise in case the exercise has taught her to be chill in her crate over time.

[Sharon & Monty]

Monty did this too.  He was not in his crate after maybe 8 months old.  He did fine, we did close the bedroom doors, but he had run of the the other 2 levels.  And then suddenly the destruction started, some small stuff, some important stuff.  We just didnt feel right putting him in the crate all day, so we started blocking him on one level, that didnt work.  I then placed him in the laundry room, he was not happy about that.  After a week or two of that we gave him another chance, and miraculously since then, he hasn't bothered anything while we are at work.  He is a bit more stealthy at nightime , stealing stuff out of the closet.

I know it's said you have to catch them in the act, but I dont believe it. We scolded Monty when we found things destroyed and he sure acts like he knows why he is in trouble.  We felt Monty was mad that we left him?    

[shelly]

Tori did this too... in fact, sometimes she still may tear up a paper or nibble on a slipper -  at almost 4 years old.  I think they really do know.  all we had to do was come within eyesight of the 'object' and she would slink away under the table, or put herself in her crate as punishment without us even saying a word.  .  At those times I would just close the door to her crate and walk away from her....without speaking a word.  BUT... what to do to stop it.. I don't know - except what we did/do is really make a conscious effort to put everything out of reach.  Can you gate her off with an expen or gates?

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I used to have a gate that afriend lent me but I returned when Ithought she didn't need it anymore :(

it's adorable that she puts herself in her crate. :)

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Thanks for your advice everyone. I guess I just need to be vigilant about putting things away and otherwise wait for this phase to be over with. I will continue to give her extra exercise in the morning as I do think that helps.

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

I treat the destruction if I don't catch her just like potty accidents. We are lucky and live in a single house but I know the neighbors can hear her cry in her crate when we are gone.   I think we will always crate her when we are gone til she gets older. We had a lab that chewed up a kitchen table and chairs.. looked like a beaver came in the house when we were gone. give me peace of mind knowing that she is okay and not having a beer party.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna is pretty good about not destroying things, but I think we're up to about 5 area rugs and 3 shoe insoles.  There are a few things we just KNOW that she will destroy if she can get them (shoe insoles, kleenex, clothing tags). 

We try to put them away as much as possible - but with area rugs we are still trying to find ones that she doesn't find "interesting" and feels the need to destroy.  Strangely she doesn't destroy our fluffy bath mats, but only STRIPED area rugs... what a strange little doodle.

If she's destroyed something she gets a few days in the bedroom only instead of (most of) the whole house, which usually gets her out of "destruction mode" for a while.