Eating Wood - Page 1

Hello Everyone!

I appreciate you taking the time to read my message.  This is my first real post, so I'm sure I'm putting it in the wrong place; Excuse me. 

I have a similar problem to a previous message board on this site when someone was having a problem with their 11 mo. Shepherd eating her kennel and other wood objects.  My 7 mo. old female Shepherd, Hilde, has eaten (ingested) an approximately 3 ft. wide arc in my wood siding on my house, not to mention the huge chunk she took out a bit later.  She can also eat (eat) a frisbee in about an hour.  She ate a tennis ball before 4 mo. old...you get the picture.  I crate her during the day and at night!  I cannot allow myself to, basically, have a caged animal!  I need a solution...people have suggested various things.  The vet said to spray Cayenne Pepper mix on the house.  Others have said to put up chicken wire around the areas until she grows out of it (thrilling).  I can buy tall indoor gates, but I'm sure she'll just eat the wood trim!

I am mostly interested in training her to stop.  She is alredy in Beginners Obedience class, and that hasn't helped too much.  She is so smart....so smart that I worry I'm not maximizing her potential.  I know she's capable of stopping this.  I would more than appreciate anyone's (anyone's) advice.

Thanks in advance!!

Marishka

Marishka, I sympathize greatly with you.  I have an 8 month old working lines German Shepherd female.  Since she was 8 weeks, she has had the insatiatable desire to eat anything an everything around her--sticks, rocks, grass, leaves.  She is a very high energy, driven dog with the ability to focus and an iron will such as I've not seen before.  She is also a born-again tracker and wonderful in puppy obedience.  She gets exercise ball chasing in a large field every morning and a long walk in the park in the evening with obedience training.  I am priviledged to have a dog of her talent and potential...

However, she ate aluminium siding off her kennel and the vet had to walk us through that one.  She ate wood off the studs on the walls in her kennel which were above the 4 foot high aluminium siding.  She ate her rubber horse mat and puked and shat black rubber for days...you get the picture.  We had to do things we never had to do for 30 years before for any other dog, to make her environment safe for her.  Now, at almost nine months, she is starting to show signs of outgrowing this problem.  I thought she'd kill herself before that happened.  I have put the largest kong in her kennel and the best toy is the eGGe.  She loves that and it's like her baby now.  I know it's not healthy for her to have such an attachment to a toy but it's way better than having her eat her environment or the tip of her tail (the thing that made me see I had to find a solution).  I find the eGGe a good solution at present.  If and when she gets bored with that, I will find another solution. 

It is a real problem and if you have a dog like that, you must find a way.  You cannot teach her to stop, you must refocus her attention, so that when she's not with you, she will not revert to that behavior.  The cayenne pepper is not a solution in any way for a high drive GSD with a strong tendency to pica.  It will only stimulate the dog to go even more for the forbidden object.  She needs to have a safe solution that keeps her busy.  I suggest the eGGe:  http://www.dogsportgear.com/ballls.htm  It might at least break the cycle.

tearing things up is understandable, particularly at that age, but actually eating them ?!? 

i would have testing done at the vet's to ensure that there's not some physiological problem, like a nutritional deficiency of some sort. 

jolly balls sometimes work, if the dog has the space to entertain him/herself with it...get them at the feed store, they are made for bored horses....works for Wolf when Yvonne's not at home...after he ate her bedroom door.....jh

I will tell you that you will NOT be able to break this habit. What you MUST do is provide much more exercise so that when the dog must be crated, it can be content and SAFE in the crate. Besides the damage the dog is doing, I guarantee you that if you do not prevent the dog from eating things, you will have, at best, a huge surgical bill and, at worst, a dead dog. I will also suggest that you get someone to help you teach the dog who uses the dogs natural drives to teach obedience, not the normal fare one sees in pet obedience classes which bore not only you but the dog to death.

Many GSDs are destructive when they have high drive and not enough mental and physical stimulation. With a dog like this, there almost always is no solution except to crate when you cannot supervise. However, you can make that down time ok with the dog if at other times it is getting the exercise it needs. If you need more help, email me off list and I can provide some suggestions for you.

I was the one who posted a thread about my dog eating wood. Since i love my dog to death, i had to throw away her wooden kennel and i bought her a brand new kennel made out of metal. I have increased her exercise so she uses her energy in a more constructive way. She is basically a working dog in a showline body and she has endless energy. Maybe you can scold her when she chews on wood and give her the kong and tell her to chew on that, praise her when she does. Please keep in mind that i am not a proffesional and you may need a proffesional person to help you out with this. Spilters can damage a dog's internal organs so tell your vet to check her stomach etc. Sometimes you just have to spend money on someone you love. Hopefully she will outgrow this habbit when she matures. My girl did and im very happy! Goodluck and keep us posted!

Hodie is 100% correct about excersize...a tired dog is a happy dog. Many people do not realize how much excersize it takes to tire out a high drive GSD, simply playing in the yard & a spin around the block simply aren't enough. I don't like crates, but I crate my dogs for thier own safety...1 scary incident with our bitch Kalie was enough to convince me, she was not a wood eater, but could somehow,(never did figure out how) get stuff down from our kitchen cabinets, and one day got down my husband's Lisinopril. Thank God I was home at the time & got it away from her BEFORE she chewed right through the plastic bottle. Play it safe, they like having their own little space, as long as you give them plenty of activity when you're around....Good luck! jackie harris Also, empty 2 liter soda bottles with the cap off and that little ring removed have always been my GSDs favorite toys, they play, & pounce, & throw them around, and chew on them until they're flat, then we discard them & replace them...we don't drink too much soda, so I've taken to buying bottled water, etc, just to get the empty bottle, LOL!