My dog has anxiety and is destroying the doors?!?

CookieMonster.x

Ok, so we got my dog 2 years ago at the rescue centre. He's about 3 and a golden retriever male. He gets these panic attacks every so often and now he has started to scratch at the doors to get in. Yes, its winter and its cold here but we put him out for a while because he is really lazy and won't go out for long. When we put him out, for maybe 10 minutes, he starts jumping up at the door and scratching it. There have been pieces taken off it he's so strong. And then when he's inside, and dinners being made, we put him in the back hall where he sleeps with our cat. He does the exact same with this door and because we have a door handle low down, he can now open the door and the handle is gonna be broke soon.
We bring him on walks, but not as many as we used to as its raining almost every day and it gets dark at about 4/half 4 in the evening. We have a big garden too.

Is there any sprays or anything I can make at home to spray on the door? We're working on getting his weight down atm as he's a few pounds overweight too and working on playing more etc, but he just won't play or get engaged like.

Any ideas? Thanks for any advice!

andreac

For starters, why cant you walk the dog when its raining? Put on a rain jacket and bring an umbrella. A dog needs to be ealked everyday regardless of the weather.

Do you live in a town or out in the country? if the country, can you drive into the local town and walk the dog there, you cant use excuses like that to not walk your dog. The winter is very long and if thats the reason you cant walk your dog, you will have one very bored and destructive dog on your hands.


Is there a reason he has to go outside? i would try ignoring him or giving him a nice treat or bone to keep him occupied while outside to distract him.
Most dogs will cry or scratch at the door to come in as they just want to b with you.

lorebringer

You need to walk a Golden Retriever every day, especially if you are trying to get his weight down. All dogs can get frustrated and have pent up energy if they are not given a way of burning it off. You need to get him moving for at least 40 mins per day, if you can't do it at night then the morning may be the best time for you. Wellies and a good rain coat are the way to go! You could try throwing balls etc. down the garden for him to get him up and about but nothing replaces a good, long walk. If he isn't into playing, try different toys - different textures and sounds, different games and try to get into it yourself, if you don't really want to play he probably won't want to either.

You need to work on training - instead of closing the door to the back hall try training him to "stay" in the back hall with the door open ( a lot of patience and persistence needed!). You could always buy a baby gate so that he is not separated, he can still see you but there is a barrier so that he can't get into the kitchen. He may just be feeling left out and want to see/know what you are doing. Teach him "down" so that he will not get up on counters while you are cooking dinner, plenty of treats and praise, and consistency, when he has all 4 paws on the ground will help with this. As andreac said - he prob just want to be with you. You could try distractions too - things to chew (raw hide etc.) when he is put out of the kitchen, so that he associated being put out with getting something nice, not just being separated from you.

With the back door, you could buy a perspex sheet to put onto it to prevent him destroying it. I have one in my kitchen door because one of mine suffers from separation anxiety and even after years of training, distraction etc. he will still scratch on occasion. Unfortunately, there are no sprays of magic home made potions that will stop him scratching the door.

MissyN

The poor dog sounds so distressed. To be honest, all dogs need their walks regardless of the rain and darkness. I've walked my dog in some crazy rain over the years cos if shes ok with it then so am I. Its my duty to do that.

you need to walk the legs off your dog. I'm a big believer in exercise changing a dogs behaviour. It makes them so much more chilled out and better behaved overall. Maybe some more toys too in the garden for him to play with. You need to work on your dog and pls be patient with him.

You know you need to walk him more though.

namurt

I can't give you any advice on the inside door but we went through this with our guy with the external door.....and no it wasn't due to lack of exercise, he gets about 2 hours a day!!! At first we were stumped because obviously you can't go out to correct him because then he'll think when he bites or scratches at the door he'll get attention. We tried ignoring it at first but when he started pulling chunks off and then cut himself on it we decided enough is enough. We got some chicken wire from B and Q and, with a staple gun, attached it to the sections he was biting at. At first I thought we were really just creating a barrier and not teaching him not to do it but it certainly worked. I hope you'll find this to be practical advice for your problem.