Shih Tzu Door Scratching

Question
Hello Suzanne!
We have a 2.5 y/o shih tzu, neutered 5 months ago, who is beginning to demonstrate mildly destructive behavior. We found him almost a year ago, abandoned, and after unsuccessfully finding his owner, decided to adopt him. In the beginning, he did scratch at the door when we left, but after tough love training, he stopped. Well...almost 8 months later, he's back at it again! We set up a camera to see when he is scratching the door (to the point of stripping the paint and wood), and it's within 20 minutes of us leaving! He literally paces the foyer, removes the front door rug, and begins digging in the front door with excessive scratching until he tires. We've been told you must scold them only when catching them in the act, but this is becoming difficult.

Our routine hasn't changed overly much. We walk him, at least 20 minutes, 3X a day, have play time, he has his toys, including chew toys. We used to walk him 4X a day, one us coming home on lunch hour, but weaned him from that about 3 months ago...he was doing fabulous! He is completely housebroken, never had any accidents, and is an overall mild mannered, no barking dog.

Any suggestions how we can overcome this revisited problem?

Thank you for taking my question, Suzanne.

Regards,

Jammy

Answer
Dear Jammy,

I think the solution is either to bring him to a cage-free dog daycare where he can get his energy out, 2-3x/week, or for you to reestablish the lunch-hour walks.  I assume he's alone for 7+ hours now, and although some dogs can take that kind of solitude, others just can't.  He still is pretty young.  I have a feeling he did ok for 3 months with no lunch breaks because he kept thinking it was going to go back to the old way.  If you can't do lunch hours every day, maybe 2-3x/week would suffice.  

I also think it would help you to feed him out of stuffed kongs on a general basis, even when you're home so that they don't get strongly associated with long departures.  Get 4-5 Kong toys, smear the inside with a thin layer of honey or peanut butter, cram his daily ration of food into them (get small/medium kongs so you can stretch him daily ration of food into several) and let him go to town.  You can even stretch the kong by adding chopped carrots, celery or apples to the mix, and maybe a little treat or two.  Kong even has a "kong dispenser" machine now which actually spits out a stuffed kong every hour or two, specifically to keep solitary dogs occupied.

Good luck and thanks for writing!
Suzanne Harris, BSc, CPDT
http://www.dogdaysUSA.com