For a very good guide to all sorts of dog training processes and dog behavior challenges, I use and recommend Clickertraining ...that link goes to the description of this terrific ebook you download immediately, wherever you are! -- Rosana

My husband and I came home last month from a ten-week trip without our dogs. We flew, and our two dogs would not fit under any airplane seat! Nor would we subject them to flying in the baggage compartment. It wasn’t easy for me to be away from them for so long, and from what I hear, the dogs weren’t exactly happy campers, specially at first. We had a friend living in our house, and she took care of both dogs and both cats just fine.

Our habit when we leave the house for a few hours is to leave LarryDog inside, where he prefers to be. Our Rottweiler Lola has the run of the yard, which has high fences and walls, so she is very secure. We even have a small fence between our parking area by the street and the rest of the yard, so we can come and go in our car without having to grab her first.

Our front sunroom has a dog door, and so she can go in there to lie in her crate or get out of the rain or sun. There is also a sofa with cushions, a recliner, and a table with four chairs…

Well, the first time that our housesitter left the place, Lola took the two huge cushions off the sofa, carried them out into the yard, and destroyed them. She made quite a mess.

I guess we should have known this was coming, because she did this a couple of years ago as a puppy, but she had been completely reliable for so long. After that, every time our friend left the house, she put the four chairs on the sofa and recliner, and everything stayed intact.

As for LarryDog, he behaved fine when our sitter was gone. But both she and the man who took care of our yard told us that he spent most of his days in the front yard near the entry from the street, staring fixedly at it. I teared up a bit when I heard that.

I’m not sure I will go away from home for quite such a long time again! Readers, how do you handle situations like this?

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