Your dog destroys the house

Dog destruction

Destruction is drive without an outlet — chewing, digging, and tearing what the dog was never taught to leave.

It started with a shoe, and you told yourself it was a puppy thing. Then the corner of the couch, the baseboard, the rug. Then you came home to stuffing across the living room, or a hole dug through the yard, or the crate bent where they tried to get out of it.

Now the dog goes in the garage when you leave, or in a room with nothing in it, and you're still doing the math on what it's cost you.

What are you searching for? You don't have to read the rest to get started.

Taught by Garrett Ridley — twenty years of dogs, and he wrote the book the training runs on.

Why is your dog destroying the house?

Destruction is almost never spite or a dog being bad. It's a drive that had nowhere to go, and your house was what was available.

Prey drive is the dog that saw a squirrel through the window and took the couch apart because it couldn't reach it. Prey aggression is the shaking and tearing — soft toys, hoses, anything that comes apart in the mouth. Scent is the dog that dug through the yard or tore into a bag because its nose told it to.

Then there's the other group, and it's about the day your dog is having. Boredom, with no work for a body and a brain that were built for it. Frustration, from a drive that keeps getting switched on and never gets satisfied. Anxiety, which does its worst damage at the door and the crate. And fear, which puts a dog through a wall or a window trying to get away from something.

Those look identical the next morning. A chewed baseboard tells you nothing on its own. What matters is which of those your dog is doing, because the fix for boredom makes an anxious dog worse.

And every episode that happens unsupervised teaches your dog that the behavior is available.

How we stop the destruction

We find out what drive is behind it, we give that drive a job, and we stop letting your dog rehearse it while you're gone.

First your dog's temperament is evaluated — drives, disposition, engagement. The evaluation tells us whether we're looking at prey, boredom, frustration, anxiety, or fear, and which way to work your dog.

Then your dog gets a map: the foundation first, then the commands this rests on — focus, sit, down, stay, and place — so your dog has a way to settle in a house full of things it wants. Chapter 42 comes after that, matched to the motive your dog actually has.

Alongside it we build the outlet, because this is the door where that matters most. Chew items a dog can actually work on. Nose games and searching for the dog that digs. Real training and real work for the dog that's simply under-employed. A drive with a job stops looking for one.

And until it holds, your dog isn't loose in the house unsupervised. Crate or kennel when you can't watch — not as punishment, but so the behavior stops getting practiced.

The finished picture is a dog with an outlet for what it was built to do, and a house you can leave it alone in.

20+ years · author of Building A Solid Canine · every dog is evaluated first

Three ways to start.

And the first one is just watching. No pressure, no dog to bring.

• General Admission

  $50

  The lecture, no dog.

  Come learn the system. Stay after lunch and watch the evaluations, or head home. Garrett teaches the Foundation — what drives your dog and how training is actually built — then reads dogs live in front of the room. No dog of your own to handle, nothing to manage, just the day and a notepad.

  Placerville, CA. The workbook is optional — $50 at the table if you want one.

  Save My Seat

• Working Evaluation

  $200

  The full Saturday, and your dog is evaluated live by Garrett.

  Everything in the lecture, and then you work your dog in a small group with Garrett coaching — what drives him, what kind of dog he is, and your first handling skills with your own hands on the leash. You leave with your dog's training map in writing.

  Comes with it:

  • The printed workbook
  • The full digital book
  • Your dog's report and week-one homework on your free owner account

  Every dog is evaluated first. All dogs welcome with accurate disclosure, including dogs with a bite history. One adult handler and one dog per spot. Placerville, CA.

  Evaluate My Dog

• In-Home Session

  $400

  Two hours at your house, built around your dog.

  Garrett comes to you, evaluates your dog where the problem actually lives, builds the training map, and teaches you the work with you holding the leash. Everything in the Working Evaluation comes with it.

  We book in-home by phone so we can ask about your dog first.

  Tuesdays and Thursdays, within fifty miles of Placerville.

  Book a Call Now

Evaluation seats close the Wednesday before at 9 PM. Open General Admission seats, up until Friday at 9 PM. Twenty evaluation spots per date. All sales are final.