He's an evil destroyer!!!

Ok, so the problem dog is my 8 month old pitty. We rescued him at 5 weeks old and since than we've been pretty much inseparable. The problem is if I ever go out and he's left alone, not crated he makes a HUGE MESS! Toilet paper shredded, paper shredded, anything that is destroy-able is destroyed!!

So, for about 2 months now I've just been crating him anytime I go out. I don't mind crating him if I'm only out for a bit, but the longer I'm out the worse I feel. (He usually urinates on himself too if crated for any longer than an hour). Has anyone else experienced this with any of their pups? Are their any tricks? My trainer said to crate him a little while longer and once when I'm only out for 30minutes leave him out and see how he does.

Are there any other ways to stop this devil from destroying my stuff other than locking him up everytime I go out?

Keep him in an enclosed area where there is nothing he can get his little paws on.

Hes basically just mad at you for leaving him behind I think.

Crosbie and Jada does this as well. Riot just howls his little brain out and then sulks.

We close all of our doors and leave the dogs in the hallway with some of their toys, water dish and beds.

Yep - make sure this is nothing he can get too.

Sound like he has a little seperation anxiety. Gets anxious and stressed when you leave.

There are lots of resources on the web for solving this problem.

our female Lab used to do that when she was a pup. i swear she ate anything and everything paper (but wouldn't touch cardboard! go figure). she had seperation anxiety but wouldn't eliminate on herself...she still used her puppy pads. she got to the point where she realized we were coming back and she never did it again.
our 9 wk old male (recently acquired) only chews on what he's supposed to (toys) BUT he will occasionally grab one of my tennis shoes and untie it. he doesn't chew on it, but he likes playing with the strings. he'll also pull things off of the sofa to play with (but not destroy). all in all, he deals with seperation very well compared to his older counterpart.

make sure your pup has plenty of chew toys and that everything else is put up out of reach. if you feel bad crating him (and he's potty trained to pads...or to wait til you get home) you don't have to. i crated our pup the first 2 nights we got him. all he did was cry and bark (never soiled himself except one time and hasn't done it in the crate since). the third night i put him in his crate while he was still half asleep, i let him fall back asleep and left the door open, the next morning (after a good nights sleep!) i saw he'd pottied on his pads and he'd been quiet all night. he slept near our female and was happy. he's never been confined before then. now he knows the crate is fun to sleep in and doesn't mean he's in trouble or locked up.

Thanks for the advice. I just really don't want to crate him anymore. I'm going out tonight so we'll see how he does :/

I'm a big fan of baby gates... you can pick them up at your local chain store like Walmart, Kmart, etc... for under $12. I like to block off my kitchen and give him access to his toys, pee pad, water, food, etc.... it gives them a much larger room that a crate can provide. They seem to do "better" this way

Thanks for the advice. He was left alone, well withough good supervision (Roxy helps him get into trouble sometimes) today for about an hour, I just closed all the doors so he could only be in the living area and kitchen. He peed twice and pooped all in an hour but nothing was destroyed.

he just didn't like being crated...and as long as stuff was put up you were o.k. he's saying, "i miss you! don't leave."

Little *******! lol. And it's so funny, because he's not even really alone, Roxy's still with him and she just goes to sleep on the couch (I leave the animal planet stuff on for them, Roxy watches the agility trials LMAO, but it's true) so you'd think he's just chill out and do the same.

When he is crated have you tried putting any of the toys in there with him that you can put treats in?
These should keep him occupied for quite a while.
My 15month old ESBT is always crated at night and also if i go out (sometimes this is for an hour and very rarely it can be up to 6 hours) i always make sure that he has plenty in there to play with (but also that he can't chew through and swallow) he seems quite happy about the arrangement.

^ Yep, I give him bones, kong/peanut butter.... When I come home he hasn't even touched them!!!

Some people have had great success with giving the dog an especially desireable treat everytime, and ONLY when they leave.

Most of the time a large raw knuckle bone is used.

Keep it in the freezer until you get ready to leave.

when you are about to leave, put the dog in his crate with the bone.

Remove the bone, put it in a plastic bag, and put it back in the freezer when you get home.

Crating is a safe place for a dog, and it helps them learn to control bladder and bowels.

I think many people create severe destructive issues with dogs when they try to stop crating them too soon.

My 2YO is just now to the point where I leave her for short periods uncrated.

She was 18 mos before I began letting her sleep outside the crate at night.

In this way the dog grows up without ever LEARNING any bad habits.

Each time they do the wrong thing, they must UNlearn it. They also get much stress relief when they destroy things when you are gone. This is a HUGE reward for them, and almost a guarantee that they will do it again.

This is why I am so adamant about PREVENTING these issues.