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I need some help figuring out what is up with my medium paw dog--Tipper will be 9 years old in March--is in amazing shape, everyone always thinks he is a young dog--he has LOTS of energy, but always has settled in the house fine.

I take him and Jenny on an hour long walk (usually with a pack on) or romp in the woods daily. I adopted him when he was 2 and he was crated for quite a while due to chewing things and potty training issues, but has not used a crate in probably 4 years.

Well, he is acting like he is having separation anxiety, but that doesn't make sense to me as nothing in his life has changed since I adopted Jenny over a year ago. Everytime I leave the house he chews up and shreds something--lately it has been the paper recycling, but when I put that away, he went after some presents that are under the tree. So, today I got back out the crate. But why would he start to do this? I work part time, so I am home quite a bit, he is never left for long periods of time. Nothing has changed. Why now? He seems in perfect health--eating, pooping, peeing, drinking all normal. I am stumped!  Any thoughts?

I would agree--get Harley some extra exercise to burn off some of his mischief energy! Tipper, my 9 year old, has started to rip up the recycling when I leave the house--I have started putting a doggie backpack with canned goods on him for our walks to help him burn off that energy and it seems to be helping.

Love that you grabbed the camera and captured these photos--too funny! 

Congratulation s to you both! What a great accomplishment .

I free feed my cats.  I tried feeding them a couple of times a day but there would invariably be fights between the more outgoing, bossy cats and the shy ones.  So free feeding has helped out with stopping the nasty behavior over food.  She can place multiple bowls out so that each cat has their own bowl and the shy guy has a chance to eat in peace.  Hope that helps some.

I do something like this as well...I put food in their bowls once a day and they eat as much as they will. I have 2 bowls for 2 cats.

Congratulation s! He's gorgeous.

I play on this site all the time.! It's so fun and it feels good to be helping do at least a little something towards reducing world hunger.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and support. Reese and Jenny are doing great. There is still some residual fear--when the dogs bark, both of my girls (they are 5 yr old twins) get scared now and run up on the couch. I think it will take some time to rebuild the trust, but I also think that we are on our way. Thanks again. 

PS--Amy, I love the Dog Whisperer, too! Just started watching the TV show and LOVE it!