Thought we were making progress with destructive dog

[neuroticmumof3]

I've got an approximately 16 mth old Staffie/Shar pei neutered bitch. She's very sweet but can be extremely destructive when I'm out of the house. We started training classes last week and were given a handout about dominant dogs and I realised I was doing a lot of things 'wrong'. So this past week I have been really focussed on making changes, no more getting on furniture, feeding her last rather than at a set time, not letting her go up the stairs ahead of me etc.

This afternoon I was on the phone in the kitchen while she was in the hall. I could hear a funny noise but at first thought it was outside. When I finally looked in the hall I found her ripping up the stair carpet!! She'd ripped it off about 6 stairs and had shredded the underlay.

I just don't know what to think. She hasn't done anything like that when I've been in the house before, only when I'm out. Is she trying to reassert her dominance by escalating her behaviour?

IMO this is more likely boredom and separation anxiety. Have you got a kong that you can stuff with interesting tastes that she can focus on instead?
You need to read up about positive reinforcement, dominance is a myth perpetuated by trainers using theory based on captive wolf packs and is an old fashioned methodology.
There's loads of really useful positive training information on the Internet, try looking on amazon for books related to this. Also, you may find you have steps back, keep trying!

She's got kongs and other toys that you can stuff with treats and they do keep her occupied for a while when I'm out or busy. She's very good at extracting things from them quickly so they don't last too long.

The trainer did say which theory the course was based on but I can't remember what it was called now, it wasn't positive training though. Although I've had a dog before I didn't need to train him - he was 3 when I adopted him and was very well behaved.

We have 4 dogs and smear the inside of the kongs with peanut butter or cream cheese. Another good idea is to freeze them as it makes it last longer too.
Another option is crate training, again loads of stuff on the internet about the best way to do this. Positive training has really worked with us, all 4 of ours (and several previously) are rescue dogs, most were dogs that had failed in previous re-homing attempts, so I know what it's like when carpet gets ripped up, tables chewed, we've even had our walls chewed by one! Positive training was the way forward, but you need to be consistent. It does get better, promise!

I won't be the first one to say it but all of those dominance based trainers are out of date and pretty much plain wrong. Dogs don't give a bugger about who goes upstairs first. Dominance based training has been completely and roundly discredited.

I think you need a new trainer. There are clearly issues which need resolving, but not by the person you've already been to.

What they said ^

Time for a new trainer methinks!

Is your dog getting enough exercise? Ours has become more destructive since we were forced to cut her walk down from 90 minutes to 30 minutes. It's a case of managing the energy and boredom, IF that is causing your problems.

This is separation anxiety, not wanton destruction, and nothing to do with dominance. If you do a search on here for separation anxiety I did a big post about it and no doubt there's others too, full of useful information (and no dominance rubbish).

I also think this sounds like separation anxiety. Our staffy-cross had this and was extremely destructive when we rescued her. She destroyed our kitchen when we'd leave her and would even break into our fridge and eat the contents :( Having to duct-tape the fridge closed every time we left the house was a particular low-point for us!

The things that worked for us were (1) Loads of exercise - does she play fetch? I find this great for tiring ours out before we leave the house. (2) Crate training and (3) Loads of peanut butter kongs :)

Hope you get it sorted. At 16 months she's still a bit of a puppy so she should settle down in time. (Although mine is 4 and has not slowed down too much yet!)