Ever wonder why your dog destroys the house while you are gone? Bonnie Beaver says in this article, CNN.com – U.S. is a nation of 360 million — pets – Mar 13, 2006:
Dogs, if we look at the wolf model, would normally spend 20 hours a day with members of their pack. Now we are their pack, and we leave for 10, 12 hours a day and now the dog is alone. And we wonder why they get destructive and develop separation anxiety.
We leave our two dogs home together and one of them still has problems, a major case of separation anxiety. We have to leave Chase in the bedroom (where he spends the day sleeping on the bed) or he’ll urinate and defecate in every room in the house. I don’t think Chase is being malicious – I think he’s just that stressed out. One theory that Julie Yamane gave me is that there’s too much space and not enough rules about what to do when you are home alone. Since Chase is never more than two feet away from me when I’m home, I can believe that having the whole house to himself might be a bit scary. Julie recommended enclosing him in the bedroom when we leave him in the house and it’s worked great for avoiding his seperation anxiety. And great for saving our carpets!
I think my dog had the opposite problem. She felt she didn’t have enough space. When I moved from a small apartment to a larger house, she relaxed quite a bit and hasn’t torn up anything or had any accidents.