Bulldog destroys furniture!

You should take these fun quizes and check out the suggestions they give on how to correct the behavior:

Home Alone Quiz

Chewing Quiz

Like many undesirable canine behaviors, destructive habits usually develop because a dog is bored, lonely, or both. Consider applying Bitter Apple, or any nontoxic spray with a scent dogs find repellant, to the object of her desire. http://dogtime.com/chewing-digging-behavior.html

Delta and Tailspin are both spot on.

Your dog is bored and by the sounds of things, has seperation anxiety. A bulldog is a working dog and loves to work, being at home all day long quite frankly, bores the hell out of him.

A 30 minute walk in the morning before you go out is essential. You shouldn’t need to spend any longer than that because of the breed. The fact that he has a flat nose means he is succeptable to poor breathing, so a strong hour run would be dangerous for the dog. A nice 30 min walk should be more than enough, it’ll knacker him out and he won’t have the energy to rip the furniture whilst you are gone. Another 30 min walk when you get home will also be vital to help him through the rest of the evening, not only that, but you’ll feel much better because of it as well.

When you leave the house, do so without any fuss. Dogs dont possess the logic thinking of “he came home at 6 yesterday, its 5:30 now, so he should be home in 30 mins”, basically, your dog is so insecure about you leaving him that he works himself up in a frenzy. The dog needs to learn that its a normal occurance, so to do this, you can train him by constantly closing doors behind you and wait 10-15 minutes each time, over time, increase the periods. DO NOT GO BACK WHEN HE BARKS OR WHIMPERS.

Don’t say goodbye to the dog when you leave, and don’t get home and encourage him when he is excited you return home. Wait until he settles down, then call him over and take him for a walk, when you get back home, be his best friend again.

Your dog will have to soon realise that you coming and going is normal precedure and he’ll get used to the idea that when you come home, you come home. Not constantly worried that you aren’t coming back, which results in destroying furniture. Rub your hands all over his favourite toy to leave your scent before you go out, making sure you don’t make eye contact or say anything. If you have taken him for a walk, chances are he’ll be too tired to care that you are leaving!

Crate training may be a very good idea at this stage, just make sure he doesn’t need the toilet before you leave and leave him with the toy you leave your scent on.

“Be sure not to punish your guy when you get home…he does not understand that you are mad about the couch, he only understands you are mad when you get home and it will increase his anxiety.”

This is also vital, if this keeps happening, you seriously need to avoid doing this as it only induces more stress for the dog. If a dog keeps getting hold of your shoes to chew, it’s your fault that he was able to get the shoe in the first place, not the dog’s fault ;-)

Best of Luck with him, sounds like a brilliant dog, despite his furniture habits lol!