Help!! My Weimaraner is destroying everything!

[Murray's Mom]

Please help me! I have a 3 year old weimaraner and he is destroying my house. First of all he steals out of the trashcan and the countertop at every opportunity. The cans have lids, but he figured out how to open them.

He is also has major seperation anxiety, which I believe is common to the bread. My husband and I go out and we come back to shreaded pillows, tissue boxes and anything else that is soft. We took him out of the cage about a year ago and he did well untill the past few months. He is driving me crazy! We did obedience training when he was a puppy, but then we moved and all was lost. I have an 18 month old and the dog is more work than him! If anyone has any advice I am all ears.

Thanks,
Carolyn

[juju]

I would put him back in his cage with his favourite toys, and a kong filled with peanut butter. you say your dog suffers from separation anxiety is it possible to only leave your dog for short periods at a time and as the weeks go by increase the time you leave him.

[Jessika]

For situation such as this, I STRONGLY recommend using a crate!! Not only will crating while you're gone save your house from being destroyed, it can also help calm him down. A crate is like a dog's "bedroom", and its a place where they can feel safe and secure.

Secondly if you ever come home and see stuff destroyed, discipline does no good unless you catch him in the act.

Can you move the trashcan to a different location, perhaps inside a pantry or kitchen closet? Otherwise try spraying the lid and top of the trash with bitter apple spray or I think my parents also used tobasco sauce with their dog when she was a pup.

Does he destroy stuff while you're home, or only when you're gone?? Because if its only while you're gone, crating will solve that problem!

Anyway good luck and let us know of any progress!

[JenBKR]

Have you thought about more obediece training? Lots of trainers will address those issues. Giving your pup lots of fun toys (kongs are great, but Roscoe won't bother with his ) will keep him occupied too.

[Dixieland Dancer]

Seperation Anxiety is a serious problem and requires serious committment on your part to help the dog get through it. But it can be done! Basically the dog can't handle when it is left alone. Although crating until the issue is resolved is in the best interest of your dog and your home, it is not the ultimate solution. Dog's with extremely severe seperation anxiety can actually hurt themselves trying to escape the crate. If your dogs anxiety is extreme make sure you know if he will hurt himself in the crate before leaving him there. Not all dogs think their crates are havens.

Usually the worst period for a dog with seperation anxiety occurs immediately after the human leaves. So starting out slowly and gradually increasing the time you are gone does not work. The key is too have the dog occupied without realizing you are going or not making a fuss over the dog when you get home. In case you're wondering my experience in this field is first hand. My Dixie suffered (suffers) from Seperation Anxiety but we have learned how to handle it. I say suffers because I don't think they ever get over it completely. They just learn to accept being alone better.

Start by making the crate a comfy environment and a place your dog wants to go to or at the least not be horrified to go into. Use stuffed Kongs or buster cubes with treats in them inside the crate while you are home. Encourage the dog to lay down inside the crate to relax while you are home. Try to discourage the dog from following you everywhere. All of this is while you are home. Your goal is to associate good things happening when the dog is seperated from you. Frozen treats in the Kong or hard to get stuff out of it. Make sure you are home when this happens though so the dog doesn't always think "I'm getting a treat so she's leaving" syndrome. Then when you do have to leave it won't be a signal you are about to leave. I even go as far as to feed the dog it's regular kibble in the crate or hand feed the dog while it's in the crate to get it over crate anxiety.

Once your dog is occupied with a treat that will keep him occupied, just leave. No words. No I'll be backs. No pets. No hugs. NOTHING. Just leave. Make sure the dog is occupied though even if it's in the crate.

After a while I would "test" the waters when I left and would crate the dog but not lock the door. Sometimes I came home to find her still in the crate and other times she was free. In doing this, you also need to make sure the house is relatively free of things that can be problem areas. For instance, I bought scat mats with raised bumps to place on couch cushions. I lifted the garbage cans onto the table so she couldn't reach them. No tissue boxes were left handy to her reach. I basically had to make sure the house was baby proof before I left each time. I would put her in her crate, give a treat that would occupy her and immediately and quietly leave.

Coming home is another challenge. She wanted to jump all over me and make a big fuss that I was home. I wanted to do the same but with a dog who suffers with seperation anxiety, you can't. It has to be very low key and not a big deal. I usually just go about my business for 10 minutes or so with only a non commital pat on the head and then ignoring. After the thrill of me coming home wore off, then I would get more personal with her.

Leaving was always more difficult for Dixie than coming home but you have to do both routines consistently to help the dog.

There is a wealth of information on Seperation Anxiety available. It would be wise for you to research it and determine what methods you want to implement. What works for one dog doesn't always work for another. The first thing you need to do though is realize this is something the dog has no control over until you help it out. In severe cases Rescue Remedy or other calming drugs are necessary. In all cases, helping the dog through it is the most loving thing you can do.

[pnance]

I agree, I'd definately crate him when your gone. Saves your house and hopefully makes him more comfortable. As for the trash can see if you can put it under the sink or in an area he can be blocked from My RB terrier Sandy was nightmare with the trash his entire life. I tried everthing and was never able to break that habit, so I just avoided giving him the chance. The kitchen trash was kept under the sink, and bathrooms were kept closed so he couldn't get to it.

[wolfie]

Everyone gave some good advice. One thing I have to add, is give him more exercise! Weims are very energetic dogs

from this website

" A Tired Weim is a Good Weim;
An Exhausted Weim is a Great Weim!

Weimaraners were developed as pointing dogs to search independently for game. This trait is revealed in their ability to hunt and run during a full day of hunting for as long as six hours. As Chris Walkowicz notes in The Perfect Match, "This kind of energy will explode if the dog is expected to be content with a stroll around the block and a once-a-day pat on the head." Weimaraners need abundant physical activity plus mental challenges to be content. Hunting, running, bicycling, hiking, swimming, retrieving, and romping through safe fields are all great ways for Weimaraners to exercise. Obedience training and tracking are good problem solving exercises for the ever-active Weimaraner mind. As Margolis notes, "If their pent-up energy is not released in some positive form, they are capable of destroying entire apartments." "

[tz1]

Agree with wolfie. Whenever zero misbehaves it's because he wants to WORK! So I take the pup to work...I run his furry butt until he or I can't stand anymore lol!

[blueweim]

I feel your pain. My weim is currently crate trained. All we have to do is say "bed time" and she runs up the stairs and gets in and awaits her treat. However more recently she hits the cage and bangs on it so hard when we are gone that sometime the crate door unlatches and lifts up and she gets out. This has only happened to us once in our home but when we travel it happens nearly everytime we leave the house we are staying in. Once she pulled the metal of the crate so hard with her teeth that she bent it just enough for it to release the hooks in the upper corner. She then somehow squeezed through the top right corner of our extra-large metal crate and got out. She had two cuts above her eye that are still healing. I am worried that she could blind herself, or cut herself and bleed, or break a tooth trying to get out. I've read multiple articles about "do's & don'ts" for behavior like this but don't know quite what to do. We do baby her a lot & she gets a lot of attention from us. Is this our problem?

She also has a bad time in the car. We have to tie her to the door handle with her leash. The she chokes herself trying to get to us in the front seat. It just breaks my heart to see her upset like that. If we did let her roam around the back seat she would try to get into the front seat and down by the drives feet to hide -- which she has done on a major highway once -- very scary!

We don't know what to do. Anyone have anymore suggestions for another weim lover that can't handle the separation?