[my-jrt]

hi all ...
pretty big problem for us here at home.
we dont own - we rent here and were granted the privilege of being able to keep a pet o the conditions that he / she would be potty trained and that no damage be inflicted to the apartment.
he is doing wonderfully with respect to peeing and pooping outside.

the problem is that when we leave - he is scratching at the door and has scratched off paint and the molding has markings.
this is nothing that cant be fixed with a little touch-up of paint - the nail markings might still be a little visible - but minimal.

please advise on what i can do to stop him from pawing / scratching at the door when we leave.
currently, when i close the dor behind me - if he does it - i tell him NO! and he stops.
obviously when im long gone - he continues....

 

[Kyllobernese]

I have one dog that scratches at my outside door when she wants in. She started to really scratch it up so what I did was get a baby gate and put it up so she could not reach the door. The baby gate is one of those plastic ones that has a handle on it and just tightens up against the door frame so doesn't do any damage to the actual door frame. It won't help if he is scratching at the molding, the only thing you can do about that is either pen him up or leave him in a crate when you go out if he is crate trained.

 

[chubby]

I agree, I would put him in a larger exercise pen somewhere he can't do damage, or in a small crate if you're only away for a couple of hours.

 

[L Kathryn]

If you're home for a day act like you're going to work as usual and leave. Correct whenever he starts scratching. Do that for long intervals -perhaps bring a book or something outside with you. When he's not scratching, go in and ignore him, just go about your business. If/when he's calm, hang out with him, play, whatever you usually do. Leave again. Repeat. Etc, etc, etc.
Or you can do the crate/playpen thing.

 

[my-jrt]

thanks so much for all the feedback!
you all have given me a few different ideas & approaches that i will try.