Pet or penance? How to get that pooch to be good

Kya deLongchamps explores some common and baffling problems when it comes to dogs’ behaviour around the house. Do owners need as much polite retraining as their hairy companions? And is there really such a thing as ‘the outdoor dog’.

Many of us have had the experience of returning to the chaos of a house taken apart by a single vandalising dog.

Some dear pets content themselves with disembowelling the sofa or violently murdering shoes, but larger, more determined darlings can target walls, skirting and doors with nails and teeth leaving considerable structural damage.