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Dog Experts: "Revenge Digging" Question
My dog (~8 month old kelpie / wippett cross) is generally very well behaved. A little hyperactive but generally not destructive at all. She has a great temperament and is very obedient. Also, she doesn't smell and has short hair so it's pretty much an ideal dog.
What puzzles me is that it has taken to digging up the back yard lawn when left alone for short periods. She is used to being alone in the morning when I go to work and my wife leaves the house to bring the kid to school, go shopping etc. So she is perfectly happy to spend hours on her own at this time - no digging, no destructive behaviour. The afternoon though is a different story. When we leave her alone then (even if only for 5 minutes), she destroys the lawn, drags laundry out of the basket and eats cardbaord boxes. I am assuming she gets ticked off because she is expecting to be taken for a walk in the afternoon - which I normally do after dinner. Any thoughts on how to train this behaviour out? The Frau is starting to go berserk. Our yard looks like a Bosnian mine field / failed Concorde landing. Please, let's keep this thread strictly "dog obedience" related - no religious, political or "war on terror/war on Iraq" or "Bush is Hitler" related infighting...... 
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08-23-2005, 08:09 PM
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A Man of Wealth and Taste
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She gets angry....and this is how she is showing U....
I have a female Airdale Terrier...when I would leave to play cards for some hours in the evening she would drag the hose out and chew it into foot long sections...finially I told her, "ohhh so your mad at me for leaving your here alone...I'm sorry." Never did she do that again to a hose...only once a coupla years later did she drag it out to stretch it out ...and again I apologized and it never happened again... when I leave I tell her she is in charge of the house and that my other Airdale..George is ther to help her..I then tell George he is to help her take care of the house...it kinda gives them some responsibility... Yeah yeah I know I been alone with the dogs tooo long....but they are very emotional creatures....
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08-23-2005, 08:24 PM
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Tabs,
Thank you for the rare glimpse/insight into your private world. How though do I try to stamp the anger out of it? Is it doing this because it is too "posessive"? Looking for the root cause here....
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08-23-2005, 08:35 PM
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A Man of Wealth and Taste
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Nothing so complex .....they are simple creatures with simple emotions.
Just acknowledge to her that you know shes angry....and apologize for it.... She accepts leaving in the mornining as part of the routine, this is apparently a CHANGE in routine which she is not used to..and it makes her mad to be left alone...her feelings havn't been considered...
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08-23-2005, 08:53 PM
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A Man of Wealth and Taste
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Stamping the anger out.....ouuuuu
Better to unwind that ball of string than to stamp it out...stamping it out only worsens the situation... You wouldn't try and stamp out your wifes anger would you....
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08-23-2005, 08:57 PM
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I have tried reacting angrily, and it cowers every time it has done it - presumably because it knows it has done bad. So telling it off is obviously not the answer as you point out.
How, exactly does one apologise to a dog?
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Audi B7 S4 Last edited by Victor; 08-23-2005 at 09:19 PM.. |
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08-23-2005, 09:16 PM
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One reason that dogs dig is to get down to cool moist earth for a place to hang out on a hot summer afternoon. Notice any connection with the weather?
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08-24-2005, 08:02 AM
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A Man of Wealth and Taste
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Agreed about digging for a cool spot to lay on a hot afternoon...
U talk to them the same way U talk to a child... When leaving....I have to go out for awhile, will you be OK, and I want U to take care of the yard for me... Or maybe she just wants to go with U in the afternoon...Then it is...I'm sorry I can't take U with me..... It works with my Mutts....
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08-24-2005, 09:21 AM
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Victor,
I found in dealing with our cat that the best approach was to avoid anthropomorphism, or the imputation of exclusively human emotions to animals. Imagine you're in the dog's brain. The traffic there is something like this: < Anger or vindictiveness doesn't come into play: the animal is incapable of foreseeing your reaction to its behavior and deliberately chewing things that you value just to make you angry. It's behavior is more associative-- meat powder means food, which triggers the salivation response. Eventually, the bell that accompanies the meat powder alone causes the salivation response. Left alone, it reverts back to the above soundtrack and begins tearing things up. I propose a positive and negative reinforcement strategy. DO get something like the Kong, and give it to the dog loaded with food when you go away. The dog may begin to associate YOU with the Kong, and when it goes looking for YOU in the afternoon, it finds the Kong and plays with THAT instead of looking for other stuff it associates less strongly with YOU. DO also discipline the dog ONLY IF you catch it in the act of destroying something. If you wait until the episode is over, that's outside the animal's memory, and it will associate the discipline with some random event that occurred just prior, which confuses the animal. A sharp word, followed by ignoring the dog for a short time, should be all that is required. Lastly, dogs are pack animals, they hunt in groups with a recognized alpha group leader. Guess what, Vic? YOU are the Alpha Dominant Leader of the HundGruppe. Make sure the dog understands that by removing all other stimuli during training. Good luck!
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08-24-2005, 09:53 AM
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Or you could retain tabs to manage the situation, which would definitely work, although the dog might become immensly fond of buffets and the collection of obscuria.
 "The Airedale Whisperer"-- coming soon to an air-conditioned big-box multiplex near YOU.
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08-24-2005, 09:59 AM
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My daughter is a professional dog trainer and she's taught me just enough about it to maybe be dangerous, but here's my take...
Dogs generally exihibit destructive behavoir out of boredom. If your dog is digging up the back yard, she's just bored. You can attach all the "human emotions" to the behavior you like, but it's just an active dog's way of amusing herself. The remedy is pretty simple. Give her something to do as you leave. A bone with some peanut butter in the hollow part works really well as an enduring source of entertainment. Or a rawhide chew that might take some time to devour. Anything that might occupy her time while you're away. It's not "revenge digging"; she just doesn't have anything to do. |
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08-24-2005, 10:00 AM
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Re: Dog Experts: "Revenge Digging" Question
Quote:
 
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08-24-2005, 10:33 AM
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clearly a sign of separation anxiety.
leader is damn spot on! i got the retards of dogs living with me (so far, another thread later), and she suffers from SA. we solved it by getting one of those rubber KONGS, and we slip in liver snack, or peanut butter. she stays busy enough so that she forgets she is alone. remember dogs cant tell time, so she doesnt know if you are gone for 10 minutes or 8 hours. the SFSPCA has a really good website to help figure out some issues.
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08-24-2005, 12:14 PM
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Personally I think my female Airdale is smarter than some of the people on this Board....
Now if the Dog is bored or suffering seperation anxiety...why doesn't it tear things up in the mornining while it is left alone....only in the afternoon... There is a CHANGE in routine...and she doesn't like it....simple ....
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08-24-2005, 01:48 PM
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Quote:
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08-24-2005, 02:58 PM
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Wow - thanks for all the responses. I'll definately lay off the heavy handed approach and get it one of those "Kongs".
It's the tail end of winter here so heat is not the issue. Tabs is definately on to something with the "change of routine" theory. Thinking about it now I am pretty sure this behaviour started when I returned from work one day around mid day and had to go back out again.
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08-24-2005, 02:58 PM
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For what it is worth, I have found that explaining things in terms and language that reson tells me dogs and very young children cannot understand can have excellent results. You have nothing to lose by taking tabs' advice, and his method worked with my female rottie.
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08-24-2005, 03:11 PM
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One of the things I use when leaving my dog is raw bones. You can go to a store and buy pet bones, I like the knee joint (I think the femur is too hard). It's about 6 inches around and 3/4 of an inch thick. It's like crack for dogs, and it's good for them. A lot of people think the raw bone is bad dogs but it's not. Dogs when wild gnaw on bones to pass the time, getting valuable nutrients and their teeth cleaned. Dont use cooked bones as they are too hard, raw bones are soft. The only thing is they want to bring them in the house to gnaw on them in the evening, we'll let her do that if they are chewed down quite a bit. You dont want to let them in with a new bone. It gets kind of funny watching her trying to sneek in a bone, she has tryed to get one in 6 times in about 30 minutes before i broke down and let her in with it.
The bone keeps her busy pretty much all day. When the bone gets down to the size of an old silver dollar I throw them away. I cant use them anymore because of the ants here in North Carolina, I forgot how bad they are, they covered her bone in 5 minutes. But if you dont have ants you wont beleave how they keep a dog occupied.
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08-24-2005, 04:37 PM
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here is what is left after my dog got even with a christmas present i put aside for "toys for tots"
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08-24-2005, 05:08 PM
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The dog is bored. Use natural peanut butter in the KONG and he/she will be happy to see you leave.
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08-24-2005, 05:28 PM
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