We had a sheltie pup who did the same thing when we were out. She always ripped up the same chair cushion in the sunroom. Our uni vet behavioral clinic told us it was separation anxiety...the stress of being separated from her owner. She was ripping up the same chair because it strongly had my scent on it...it was the chair I sat on. They gave us wonderful tips of how to deal with the problem. One was to let her have her special 'cave' or 'den' place to stay in & to leave something like a towel with her that strongly had my scent on it. I used to put a towel in my dirty clothes basket overnight.
But all the other tips are in a great article from the American Dog Trainers Network. Go to http://inch.com/~dog/directory.html Scroll all the way down to the heading PROBLEM SOLVING under which you'll find Separation Anxiety. Click on that & a brilliant article will come up. You can also find an article on puppy's chewing by scrolling down to the heading ARTICLES under which is Preventing Your Puppy's Destructive Chewing. Click on that. But read the separation anxiety article first. All those tips 'cured' our sheltie of destructive chewing while we were away from home. (But when we got a second sheltie, she was even better because they she had company & wasn't stressed when left alone.)

[This message has been edited by Angels3 (edited February 13, 2001).]