[beams75]

My dog is about 2 now. He had separation anxiety very bad for a while, but that has largely subsided. He is also well crate trained.

Summary:
Torn holes in two couches (same places)
considering stronger medication than Trazodone to help (with re-training of course)
Walks for a few miles a day at a minimum; naps and is relatively calm otherwise

Question:
What can i do besides keep buying furniture?

Full Story:
With that said, i have gone through two couches with him. He chewed the first one so bad i had to give it away and replace it; he would keep opening it up and making it worse.

As for the second, current couch, he has chewed the SAME PLACE as the old one and keeps going back to it and making it worse. I am about to move into a house (with a third, new couch) and don't know how to stop this behavior. The last two times he has opened this one up i have been in the shower for 10 minutes tops.

We walk at least a few miles a day right now. He takes naps throughout the day and is NOT a high energy dog in my opinion. He is currently on trazadone and it has helped with a lot of his issues. I am unfortunately talking to my vet about another pill to see if i can get him ok out of his crate when im not watching.

Has anyone else gone through multiple pieces of furniture? I can't keep buying replacements.

PS - he was perfect out of his crate for months, then some construction crew came into my apartment and he can't ben out of his crate any more for very long.

 

[Rain]

Sounds like he might be chewing as a stress reliever.

The thing you are going to have to do is block his access to your couch when you know he's likely to view it as an overly large chew. You can either baby gate him, use a 4ft tall exercise pen across the door if he's a jumper, out of the room, crate him, or shut him into a dog proofed room, whatever works to keep him from the couch. You need to break the habit of him chewing on the couch, and that's about the only way to do so. Supply him with a variety of appropriate chews, I'd supervise him with those. Try leaving him with a stuffed Kong so that he has something to work on to relieve any stress he may be feeling, if you know he's not a strong chewer the black ones are usually safe to leave with most dogs, just make sure to not block the little bottom hole so that a vacuum doesn't form in the Kong trapping his tongue (I put kibble in the bottom to prevent that from happening).

Thanks for not giving up on him!

 

[ZoesMom]

I would do the anxiety medication (with the supervision of your vet or vet behaviorist), more training and lots of acceptable chewies that would be safe for him. Like stuffed kongs. I would also crate him any time you can't watch him.

There are also seminar dvds you can rent from Tawzer Dog about separation anxiety. Nicole Wilde has a really good one.

 

[beams75]

thanks for the replies. he has a couple of those antler/bones that he loves to chew on, as well as soft toys, but I'm not in the habit of leaving a kong out when I'm in the shower (the last two times he's gotten into the couch it's been while I've been in the shower). That can't hurt, but in the past he has finished off the treats in the Kong and then moved on to the couch.

Regardless, I'm still going to pursue the different medication and work with him more once I move since I believe that will hit his "reset" button for his behavior at least a little.

Note: I just adopted another dog (only because he got to know her) that he absolutely loves, so hopefully he will be more tired from now on as well.