Because your dog destroys everything in the house.

You come home, tired after that day that seemed like everything went wrong, and you find rubbish scattered all over the house, your dog’s new bed is all torn up, the flower vase in the middle of the living room and your favorite shoe is all bitten off, right? of Murphy attacking with everything!

We love our dogs so much, but when these almost movie-like scenes happen, it seems like a test of patience, right? You are left helpless, not knowing what to do – after all, you just wanted to finally lie down on the couch and catch up on your favorite series.

That’s why we’re going to tell you why your dog is destroying and biting everything! Understanding why your little one is apparently acting like a bulldozer is the first step to solving the problem. Oh, and in the next post, we’ll explain how to teach your dog not to cause chaos all over the house!

My dog ​​destroys everything, am I exaggerating?

I need to explain to you why this is not a simple problem before we start the journey to understand the cause of these unwanted behaviors. Yes, you may get irritated when this happens. Although for some people they may seem like harmless behaviors, they can really harm your relationship with your dog!

Maaas, if you think it’s a natural behavior and that it has nothing to do with you personally, I promise your head will feel a lot lighter! Don’t look at it as your dog’s personal revolt against you.

Why can they be harmful? In addition to obviously spending a lot of time cleaning up all the mess and having to throw your curtains, favorite shoes and the flower vase that was the most beautiful piece of decoration in the house in the trash, there are also risks to the health and well-being of the Geek! Imagine the situation where a dog destroys a cell phone, for example 😱

We already had a client, assisted by one of our Commercial Partner Angels here at Pet Anjo, who told about a case that happened to him that would leave anyone at least desperate. He had just bought a brand new state-of-the-art cell phone and lost it around the house.

To his unfortunate surprise, his dog found his cell phone on the living room sofa before he did. Within 10 minutes the device was already “lifeless” and unusable on the living room carpet. Just imagine this tutor’s despair and frustration!

It may sound funny, but it’s a very, very serious matter. In cases of destruction of furniture, objects, plants, pets can have major health problems. Some part can get stuck in an organ, hurt the mouth, some chemical product present in the device can be toxic, just as several plants can poison our dogs.

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And more than that, the relationship between the owner and the animal becomes increasingly difficult. We feel resentful, we think the dog did that on purpose (the famous myth of guilt). And after that busy day, he ends up getting super frustrated and often, without even realizing it, he resorts to punishment: he shouts, points the finger and so on. “I love my dog, but seriously… why does he need to destroy everything?” – Who never heard this sentence?

Over time, the animal becomes increasingly afraid of the person, the relationship becomes more difficult and tempers become heavy. Suddenly you, that person who is the most important thing in your pet’s life, starts to get angry all the time, you don’t play anymore, you’re always in a bad mood. The family bond is weakening, which, you don’t know, is one of the main factors in the abandonment of pets.

In other words, this is a very serious problem and needs to be addressed in families with pets.

Destroying and biting are normal behaviors

Exploratory behaviors such as sniffing objects and plants, playing and digging are normal for dogs. Close your eyes and think of a happy dog. Did it close? Wasn’t he playing, sniffing things or digging holes? But, for us, these are often not legal behaviors, as they destroy our home. After all, things in the house are in the way of the game, and that gets complicated.

It is very common, for example, for a dog to destroy the sofa because it is trying to find a toy that is under the cushion. Stepping on flowers and destroying the garden when he was chasing an animal, running or playing. The dog bites doors or windows near the fence of a neighbor who has other dogs to mark their territory.

These are behaviors normal, but if they occur with high frequency, they can cause a lot of headaches for the humans in the house. We, professionals in the field, call it normal but unwanted behaviors. Important: unwanted for us humans, not for animals. For them it is simply play and exploration – unfortunately with the toys and in the wrong location.

Good news:

But, good news! We can work so that when your dog is playing in the yard, for example, he doesn’t destroy all the grass, just plays on it. This is the most common situation: normal behavior, but unwanted by the human because it disturbs the human. Depending on the intensity and frequency of this, it may be related to boredom and little physical exercise – it is much more common than you might think, a consistent exercise routine helps a lot!

But it could be that these behaviors are part of a medical or behavioral problem. In these cases they are not considered normal. Some problems that can lead to these behaviors, for example, are separation anxiety, compulsive disorder, fears and phobias, and oral problems.

Generally animals with a very high level of anxiety present these behaviors of biting, scraping, scratching as a way to escape emotional discomfort. These cases related to anxiety, fortunately, can also show a great improvement with increased mental and physical exercises, as well as normal but unwanted behaviors.

In the next post we will explain the reasons why your dog has this type of destructive behavior. Click here to read the next post.