I've always had cats and dogs in the house. Have never had them tear anything up. my one cat does like to attack the newspaper in the evening after I've read it, I lay it in the floor for him and he has a hey day with it. we took in a little dog that had eaten some friends of ours couch and chair. this little 8 lbs dog destroyed it. but we just loved him and I knew it was because they left him alone for long hrs. we took him in and in the 15 yrs that we had him, he never tore a thing up. he was loved and had lots of attention.