things we have tried (unsuccessfully) to keep bella from destroying our house while we are away for brief intervals:
day 1: put her in the kitchen with a child's gate. she has never been able to get over a child's gate before! it will be perfect.
result: she jumped over the gate and chewed pieces of the armoire.
day 2: leave her in the garage. there is really nothing in there to chew, besides large pieces of furniture.
result: the human eye does not see the things to chew. the dog eye saw the carpet on the stair leading to the garage, and the cat door on the door.
day 3: try the garage again.
result: all clothes and sheets in the hamper were DESTROYED (including my favorite sevens jeans).
day 4: purchase a $110 pen for her. try it out in the store. she cannot escape. it is perfect!
result: lifts pen from underneath. escapes. only chews a random water bottle in the garage.
day 5: we will bolt the pen to the wall. the tension will make it so she cannot escape from underneath.
result: she escapes regardless and pulls down every last cleaning supply bottle from the shelf, leaving the garage looking like a hurricane hit it.
day 6: replay of day 5. add a dose of human ativan in hopes that it will relax her.
result: see day 5.
day 7: after careful thought and a run to home depot, we bolt the pen from the bottom INTO THE CONCRETE FLOOR.
result: bella has chewed through the motherfucking metal pen! her head is stuck in between the broken metal slats within 10 minutes. we rush in to save her.
week-long conclusion: the dog will kill herself before she allows us to leave her alone peacefully. it is such a disaster. i'm plum out of ideas, save renting her her own house with nothing in it to destroy. this is just so out of control. clearly, she is not adjusting well to the move.
postscript:
day 8: leave her in pen, bolted to the concrete floor and the wall. have terrible thoughts all day of coming home to dead dog, suffocated from head being stuck between two slats of metal all day long.
result: the fucking bitchass UNHOOKED THE PEN FROM THE FLOOR and chewed more clothes and misc. garage items. how does a dog manage that? they do not have thumbs. conclude she is houdini.