If it only happens when you leave, it isn't bad behaviour

The short answer: if the damage happens only when you leave — chewing, pacing, barking, scratching at the door, accidents in a house-trained dog — that's separation-related anxiety, and it's panic rather than misbehaviour. If your dog does it while you're in the room, that's boredom or teething. Completely different problem, completely different fix.

That distinction decides everything else, so I put it first instead of at the bottom.

Why punishment makes it worse

There's a moment most owners have and don't talk about: you come home, you see the damage, and you're angry — then ten minutes later you feel awful for being angry, because it's a dog. Both are normal.

But the anger doesn't work, and that isn't a failing on your part. A dog that destroys a door while you're out isn't making a decision; its stress response is running with no off switch. Coming home angry just adds "and sometimes she's furious when she gets back" to the list of things that being alone predicts — so tomorrow is slightly worse.

You can't correct panic out of an animal. Not because punishment is unkind, though it is, but because it addresses a choice that was never made.

What actually works, and it's free

The whole method rests on one idea: your dog has learned a chain of predictions — keys, then shoes, then that drawer, then eight hours alone. You break the chain by making each cue predict nothing at all.

Start today, one cue: pick up your keys, sit back down, and don't leave. Ten times a day. Right now those keys mean you're gone for the day; you're making them mean nothing. When your dog stops lifting its head, add shoes. Then the door handle. One cue at a time, never two, and if the dog stands or paces you've moved too fast — drop back a step.

Nine days of that resolves a surprising number of cases on its own. The people it doesn't work for are almost always the people who did three days and stopped — not a criticism, just what the method requires.

And a digital routine is never a substitute for a vet visit if the behaviour changed suddenly. A sudden change in an adult dog can be pain, not psychology. Rule that out first.

While you're here

A dog that paces a house for eight hours leaves it covered in hair, and most people fight that with the wrong tool. Two minutes, and it'll save you a lot of vacuuming:

On this site. That page contains an Amazon affiliate link.