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How old are the dogs and were they left unattended for the 12 hours in the house?
Young dogs, and puppies naturally chew and will chew and destroy things out of boredom. Even adult dogs will chew and destroy out of boredom.
We never leave our furkids for longer than 3-4 hours (at the most) and always put them in crates/dog containers for that amount of time. If we are going to be gone for a longer period of time, we arrange for a friend or someone to come in and let the kids out and spend some time with them. If we are going to be gone for 12 or longer, we take them to our vet's for kenneling. They are let out to play and time is spent with them.
Dogs are very social animals and even if you have two or more of them, they still get upset when the rest of their pack (you) are gone and that disturbance causes issues. The stress of it can cause chewing and destructive behavior.
Also, some dogs have a higher level of energy and when left alone, that higher level of energy can come out as destructive behavior. It does not mean the dog is a bad one, just that it needs to have it's energy and actions redirected.
I can't leave mine alone in the house for even an hour. We could the puppy as he is crate trained. But our Great Dane has severe seperation anxiety. She can't be alone ever without destroying EVERYTHING. So they both go into the garage when we leave. Our garage is practically empty because it is "their" room.
eggcited2, Our dogs are, Oldest is 9 (she doesn't lay her teeth on anything) the 2 others are nearly 2 and half years old.
Kenneling is an option but our nearest kennel is 2-3 hours away, and it costs R35 per dog, which is little in dollars but costly with Rands.
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Same thing happened to a friend of mine with a rescue greyhound. Only thing, her boyfriend was still at home! He called her at work (we worked together). "Honey, your dog is eating the couch."
"WHAT?! Well stop him."
"Why? He's not my dog and it's not my couch."
Dog ate through two couch cushions by the time she got home.
HAA!! I would have ended that conversation with... and you're no longer my BF get out!
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Same thing happened to a friend of mine with a rescue greyhound. Only thing, her boyfriend was still at home! He called her at work (we worked together). "Honey, your dog is eating the couch."
"WHAT?! Well stop him."
"Why? He's not my dog and it's not my couch."
Dog ate through two couch cushions by the time she got home.
HAA!! I would have ended that conversation with... and you're no longer my BF get out!
She ended up marrying him. The dog died of natural causes a year or two ago. They kept the couch, just got 2 new cushions for it. He does clean her horse stalls daily so I think that made up for the couch getting eaten.