SOS, 7 mth old dood EATING our walls

[Jen]

Hi all,

Has anyone else dealt with a dood who eats their walls!?!? He is an amazingly good boy other than this and I honestly cant figure out why he is doing it. He has numerous toys, and he isn't a toy destroyer, so at this point he must have at least 30+ stuffed toys, balls, and chews (we also give him bully sticks and he has a mid-day walker on top of  his AM and PM walks). He is SUPER sneaky about it too and I have never caught him in the act. Anyone against the idea of spraying a no bite spray along the bottom of all of our walls? Does it smell?

Thanks in advance : ) 

Jen, Brendan, and Murph 

[Adina P]

So he's doing this while you're at home?   (As opposed to when he's left alone, for example?)

The simplest solution for stopping bad behavior that is happening in a sneaky way, is to keep your dog in the same room or tethered to you for a bit.  The no bite sprays do have a smell (but then again dogs smell things we don't even notice) so they will know when it is applied and when it is not.  

[Jen]

He seems to do it both when we are home (I work from home a few times each week) and when we are away, it's as if he's sleeping in the kitchen floor (which he does most of the time) and then magically there is a tooth hole carved out above our baseboards

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've known of several puppies (and even older dogs with separation anxiety) who do this. I can't tell you why, but the solution is to allow less unsupervised freedom. Crate him when you're not home, and crate, confine, or tether him to you when you can't watch him. 

I used the bitter no-bite spray on the corner of my desk where my puppy was chewing. I don't notice a smell. 

[Jen]

I def might try the tethering method, I'll pick up a bottle of the bitter spray to see how he reacts to it as well : ) 

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

What you are experiencing is in no way unusual. My Murphy is 7 months old and must stay with me at all times or go in her crate. Sometime between 6- 8 months you can expect "extra curricular activity" - digging, chewing, scratching at stuff, barking - to really begin full speed ahead. 

Usually our vigilance has dropped, because pottying is pretty well under control.  Do as Karen says and you will all be happier. Murphy began to come untethered to me, but still with me at about 5 months.  I expect to keep her near until she is at least three years old.  When I leave she is crated, when I am home she is in the room I am in.  Sometimes, usually after dinner she ends up on her leash again as she winds down for the day.  Some days she just can't settle, even though she has had plenty of exercise, games, training.   Generally you will get a nice peaceful period around 12 months.  Then watch out as 18 months approaches - the equal of adolescence in even in neutered dogs.  Any training before this will help enormously even though you may have to train more often and back up a bit now and then.  Three is usually the start of young adulthood, if you have kept up the training and rules it will be awesome and worth the work!     

[Jen]

Thank you for the amazing advice!! He hasn't been created in a very long time but I do like the tethering idea : ) will give t a try 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My son's Doberman ate/chewed/licked walls when he was a puppyl I think he was bored.  We fixed that area and he quit - I don't know what was so attractive ...  Our Springer Spaniel ate the molding/baseboards among other things like couches, chairs, rugs etc.  He outgrew it but he did it out of anxiety when he was left alone.   We used every deterrent spray we could come up with, but none worked. We limited his area when we had to leave him.  My mom made a paste of red pepper and painted it on her chair legs when her Westies were pups.

[Carol and Truffle]

Did the red pepper not cause pain? We have a cockatoo who eats jalapenos & serrano peppers. I'm alway petrified when the bird drops the remains that Truffle will get one of the pieces & then be in miserable pain.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Since it was my mom doing it, I don’t know that the smell or the taste was the deterrent. She had gorgeous antique furniture that puppies simply couldn’t be allowed to nibble on. My Springer chewed the corners off her Asian rugs though. LOL

[Leslie J]

Cocoa used to try to chew holes in the walls and drywall.  It drove me crazy- both because I knew it couldn’t be healthy for her and also because we had just remodeled our house and all the walls were new and freshly painted.  I tried to watch her carefully but every so often she made the holes more expansive.  My walls looked pretty bad in the kitchen where she did her worst damage- I would gate her in with me while I cooked and sometimes got distracted and didn’t notice when she was chewing.

I sprayed Pet Botanics Bitter End spray on the areas she liked the best and that seemed to help but I had to reapply it every few days. The good news is that she seemed to outgrow the habit by the time she was one year old.