Dougie just ripped off our doorframe !!!

We came back from work to find the bottom of the lounge door and door frame and part of the skirting torn to shreds Nothing like this has happened before.

I took him for a walk early this morning and it was chucking it down here in Notts. He lost me for a while and got so panicked he swam through the swamp to get to me. When I got home I showered him but he barged out the shower soaking wet then shook black swamp mud all over the lounge. I towelled him down and put him in his room, but when I was in the shower he jumped the stair-gate and plonked himself on the sofa, which he aint allowed to do I decided that morning to stop him having the run of the whole house and lock the lounge door. Hence the chewing.... I think....

I dont know why he was so upset? I darent lock him out the lounge now incase he does something worse... but surely this isnt the answer.... besides, he really hurt his gums and must have been distressed

A heck of a lot of things happened all at once so very difficult to see which of them caused the reaction.

First of all he got in a major panic on the walk. I'm presuming he doesn't normally have a shower straight afterwards so again something new and then a change in his routine when you left him (confinement instead of free run of the house). On top of all that, we've had dreadful weather today, high winds, strong rain etc which would probably have added to his distress.

Hopefully, this won't have triggered a reaction that will be habit forming. I'd try letting him have his usual run of the house for a few days and then gradually close of different parts of the house to him, ie maybe close one door that just stops him access to one small part of the house rather than confines him to one room. Then work on other doors closing over a period of time.

Is there a reason why he has to be confined to one room rather than have the run of the house?

Thats true, alot of things happened.... he doesnt normally have a shower at all, it was just due to this black mud.
Hmmm, the weather wasnt too bad during the day.... he only seems to panick when its loud thunder which we didnt have.

Sorry, I think we have our wires crossed with regards to what he had access to ........
He normally gets the whole run of the house but yesterday I shut the lounge door, shutting him out of the lounge, not in.
So he still had the run of the house minus 1 room which was the lounge. Well the only other room thats shut off to him is the bedroom and he is fine with this. Just the lounge he seems to have a soft spot for.

Another reason I thought of is our back garden is off the lounge so maybe he heard a noise in the garden and panicked as he couldnt get to it to guard?????

He could just have been a bit stressed? Is this the door you left out of? Perhaps he felt anxious being separated from you having had a negative experience - or simply because it was the first time he was denied access to this area?

Dogs often chew when anxious. If you are wanting to limit his access to certain rooms in the house it would be a good idea to do this whilst you were at home. ie: don't let him follow you from room to room, try shutting the door even just for seconds and re-entering, build up the time he is left 'alone' when you are at home and you should be able to leave him with the door shut in time.

It might also be worth buying that bitter-spray to put on the door frame to deter him chewing on it.