Wood eating dog !

jrar

Looking for help / opinions.........

Gave a stray a home about 2 months back - we reckon he's about 8 months old now based on his weight when we got him. Had him chipped, neutered, vaccinated - the works. Lovely dog, sort of cross between retriever/setter/springer and very biddable.

However, one thing we cannot stop him doing is eating ANYTHIING with wood in or on it - to date he's eaten plants, pulled a trellis down and started chewing eat, has eaten parts of his kennel, gnaws the kitchen table leg, has gnawed his way through railway sleepers in the garden, chewed off bits of the wicker laundry basket, and for his latest trick he managed to dig/chew a hole in our decking yesterday in about 30 mins.

My better half is threatening him with a move to a pet sanctuary as she's an avid gardener and he is slowly but surely wrecking the garden !

He eats grass and plant leaves as well is his favourite - does this indicate a deficiency of anything ?

He's fed quality dry food 3 times a day, is walked a lot and allowed off the lead to burn off excess energy whenever possible, sleeps in a crate indoors - snoozes in front of the TV with us at night - basically he's really well looked after and cared for by all 4 of us but we need to get him to stop eating/chewing wood somehow !

Any ideas ??

NomadicGray

You've adopted a beaver

Satori Rae

Sounds like he is still in puppy mode and his teeth l could be still settling into his jaw.

How often do you exercise him??

I would recommend getting him kong toys filling them with peanut butter and freezing them so they last a long time. Every time you see him going for something he shouldn't make a loud noise to startle him then re direct him to a kong toy or bone. Every time he goes for the toy after you place him by it , praise and rub him and make a fuss of how he is a good boy. It will slowly get him more into the toy side of things rather then eating your garden etc.

This does mean a lot of supervision so if you can't do this (if you work out of home) you could getting a family member to watch over him or look into crating him, crating is not something I have tried ever the only things I know it must be of a good size for your dog and also you can't have the dog in there for hours on end. (toilet needs and lack of exercise would counteract what you are trying to do in the long run)

tk123

Have you tried giving him something else to chew on - bones, nylabones, bull horns etc?

mymo

My boy was given a stuffed kong or similar every time he looked at something sideways!
It takes time and constant praise like said above, but it works, got my fella at 9 weeks so we had a head start on you. I fed his meals mostly in kongs, use mashed veg as a binder for dry food, or sardines in tomato sauce with veg or rice, basically any left overs mashed up with something tasty. Freeze to make it last longer, if you have someone at home watch him like a hawk and give him the kongs any time he looks about to chomp on something. It should settle down in a couple of months if it's his teeth, nylabones are great too, or in summer freeze his dinner in a butter tub with a little water, helps cool them down on hot days.

DBB

tk123 wrote: »

Have you tried giving him something else to chew on - bones, nylabones, bull horns etc?

This is a likely avenue of success OP, coupled perhaps with curtailing his access to timber out in the garden, which might mean barricading off sections of the garden for a couple of months.
Chewing is deeply and inherently rewarding for dogs, with some dogs it is truly, truly heavenly, so your best bet is to (a) prevent as far as possible any unsupervised access to timber, and (b) redirect his chewing onto something else more appropriate such as the above-mentioned by tk, or the stuffed Kong as advised by Satori and mymo, and you can also give him his food in tetra packs and plastic bottles so that he's directing that chewing onto a range of more appropriate, and (in theory at least!) more rewarding (because they're food-based) objects
If you can satiate his chewing gene with appropriate items, the idea is that he'll be less likely to go after your timber stuff!

That said, eating non-food items to such an extent *may* be an indication of an underlying health problem. What is the brand of food you have him on? What are his poops like? Is he hard to keep weight on or off?
My guess is that it's not a medical issue, it's just something he really loves doing!

syklops

nd you can also give him his food in tetra packs and plastic bottles so that he's directing

Plastic bottles?!? Not sure I'd recommend that, it gets sharp.

Just go into the butchers and ask for some large bones with a bit of meat still on. Or better yet, cook a leg of lamb and give pooch the left over leg. Once he has trimmed every millimetre of fat and sinew off it, replace it with something else interesting. Dogs are stimulated by taste because they associate taste with nutrition. This is why they sometimes ignore a bowl of fresh clean water and drink from muddy puddles instead.

DBB

syklops wrote: »

Plastic bottles?!? Not sure I'd recommend that, it gets sharp.

Just go into the butchers and ask for some large bones with a bit of meat still on. Or better yet, cook a leg of lamb and give pooch the left over leg. Once he has trimmed every millimetre of fat and sinew off it, replace it with something else interesting. Dogs are stimulated by taste because they associate taste with nutrition. This is why they sometimes ignore a bowl of fresh clean water and drink from muddy puddles instead.

I've never seen a plastic bottle get sharp as the dog chews it into blunt edges, but more often just flattens the bottle. I wouldn't hesitate to say to use them, but as with all chewy stuff, keep an eye on things.
We're always blue in the face asking people not to feed their dogs cooked bones in this forum, so feeding the cooked lamb-bone is not a good idea. Neither is it recommended to feed weight-bearing bones, particularly of any animal larger than a sheep: pork, beef, even turkey leg bones and joints are just too hard, and most certainly damage teeth.
The rule of thumb is this: raw, meaty, non-weight-bearing bones.

Satori Rae

Not to pick on the bone issue but lamb bones are full of fat not a great option for dogs (not sure if there ok cooked or uncooked)

In fact I never gave my dogs a raw bone before the odd postman's leg from the pet store or nylon bone. Thoughts on this?

DBB

There is pretty much no fat in bone. The fat in a sheep's bone marrow is the same as beef...
https://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2007/Spring/BMFA.htm
...although there's less of it to be had in smaller lamb bones. In any case, dogs need animal fats... they're good for them in moderation!
Postman's legs are baked and not brittle enough to form sharp shards, but their nutritional value compared to a raw, meaty bone (and I stress that bones are meant to be meaty, not stripped back) must be much smaller. I've had a few dogs who get monumental scutters when they eat them!

Squeeonline

No one has made a joke yet about his bark being worse than his bite? Standards have fallen around Boards... :P

shaymus27

Your dog needs something to chew on.

Vets advise against bones yet sell marrow bone - type bones filled with something.

Don't know why they don't recommend marrow bones if they are going to sell a thinner shell of a marrowbone type bone filled with stuff that wouldn't be as healthy as a marrowbone.

Vets have said to me don't give them bones that have been cooked as they can be broken more easily.

Don't ever give bones that can be chewed up and bits splinter off.

Even marrow bones can be chewed up at their tops. It's a bit of a risk as they may chew bits off and maybe puke them up. If they get stuck in their stomach, there could be problems. I gave my dog raw marrowbones and sometimes he puked up bits. If I didn't give him them he would have gone more in search of dead rabbit 's to chew on their paws etc. so I chose the marrow bone.

Ask your vet for advice and ask them can you give whatever it is you might be thinking of giving your dog. Also ask how things should change as you dog gets older in respect of what to give your dog for chewing.

cocker5

OP,

Def. the puppy stage. I have a cocker and he chewed EVERYTHING within reach up until he was 18 months old and i mean everything.

on the wood issue - we were advised to use "Crib halt" on all our fences, decking, shed, his kennel etc to stop him from chewing... - it worked a treat, it will really help in your garden.

http://www.theequinewarehouse.ie/crib-halt-gel.ir

He def needs some toys to play with / chew on....

look at these on zooplus.ie this will help keep him busy and occupied.

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/activity_dog_toys

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/intelligence_games/146815

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/chuck_it

to be honest OP the trick is until he is trustworthy don't leave anything within reach... ie your wicker basket - remove all temptation and after a while he will stop. don't leave anything around that he can wreck... until he grows out of the puppy stage he will keep wrecking.

ifah

Our fella loves his deer antler - will spend ages every day chewing at it.

karlyk1

ifah wrote: »

Our fella loves his deer antler - will spend ages every day chewing at it.

+1 on the Deer Antlers.

Our Lab is an ‘enthusiastic’ chewer, totally obsessed with her gob (I suppose chewing things just reminds her of her favourite hobby – eating food). She is always chewing rocks and branches (especially thick ones). Obviously, I take the rocks off her, although she seems to play with them more than anything. With the wood/branches I watch her like a hawk but she NEVER seems to swallow anything. Her favourite pastime is stripping the bark off them and spitting it out. I have watched her with one for long periods and it’s always the same – strip the bark, spit it out, strip the bark, spit it out. The grass will be covered in strips of bark afterwards. But since she got to about 8 months (she’s 18 months now) she never goes near furniture or such. Just her little logs.
The deer antlers are expensive but SO worth it. She will happily spend hours with it if I let her, but I tend to distract her and take it off her after about ½ hour or so… she would chew it till her gums bled!
And frozen Kongs are the best advice I ever got here. She’ll just spend ages figuring out how to get that tempting food out of it (we giver her one when we’re leaving the house for any period and she’s like “yeah, yeah… see ya later humans. Me and Mr Kong have some business to attend to!”:pac:

tk123

Just be careful with the antlers as a lot of people had dogs who cracked/chipped teeth with them. I find with my two they have sense possibly from their raw diet - they're use to bones etc and know their limits so won't chew on anything that's too hard and give it back to me instead!

Heat_Wave

Aww he sounds adorable OP.

I remember when my guy was a puppy he destroyed the garden. Dug cheeky holes everywhere, buried his toys, tore his kennel apart etc.

You're lucky though - my guy used to chew my arm!

I used to find it endearing but my mum used to go absolutely bananas. He's teething, tell your wife it will all be okay in 1-2 years time

jrar

Thanks for all of the replies - really useful.

I should have included in my OP that he has a kong (and we stuff it for eating every so often), has nylabones, stuffed toys, squeaky toys, balls, etc. - so no shortage of alternative chewing material but he still loves pulling up roots, eating clematis branches, the odd broadleaf plant, and of course wood !

His latest trick is ripping things off the clothes line and racing around the garden with them - he's moved one step closer to the pet sanctuary as far as my wife is concerned ! Initially he appeared to do it for the wooden clothes pegs but now it's just anything hanging down that grabs his fancy irrespective of the type of peg !

He's a little bit wild at times so we really need to do some obedience training with him - I leave him off the lead sometimes in the local park but he rarely comes to you when you call him, and he is so easily distracted by ANY other dog and thinks every other dog is his new best friend - regardless of the size of the dog.

It's ok when he meets like-minded dogs or ones that want to play with him - but a bit awkward when he starts buzzing around a dog being walked on a lead and you can see the owner getting annoyed with him, but even with the offer of treats, he's hard to catch ! He has energy to burn, and is really quick over 50-100 metres, yet will stand still for 10 mins in the bath whilst we give him a wash

Really wish we knew his background as it might help us a lot in dealing with him - that said, he's totally settled in here, knows the night-time crating routine and rarely if ever barks or whines at night but settles down and goes off to sleep.

Would a stint at obedience classes possibly work for him or should we just keep working on him given that he's still very much a pup ? Is it too early to try to control him - or might we regret it if we don't do it now while he's still young ?

tk123

jrar wrote: »

Would a stint at obedience classes possibly work for him or should we just keep working on him given that he's still very much a pup ? Is it too early to try to control him - or might we regret it if we don't do it now while he's still young ?

I started training my girl when she came home at 9 weeks - never too early imo. What do you feed him as that could be adding to his energy levels.

jrar

tk123 wrote: »

I started training my girl when she came home at 9 weeks - never too early imo. What do you feed him as that could be adding to his energy levels.

SciencePlan dry food for medium-breed pups - he loves it and would eat a lot more than his allocated 3 bowls a day if he were let !

That said, we give him some treats as well (markies, etc.) but he's thin as a whippet so no issues with carrying weight at all

peasant

jrar wrote: »

Really wish we knew his background as it might help us a lot in dealing with him - that said, he's totally settled in here, knows the night-time crating routine and rarely if ever barks or whines at night but settles down and goes off to sleep.

His background doesn't really matter as far as his current behaviour is concerned ...it's just normal (large) puppy rambuctiousness combined with a bit of teenage doggy stubborness and selective deafness.

Establish some clear rules, praise and reward when followed / correct or ignore when not.

Stick to the rules and sooner or later the dog will too.

It would help if your wife and you had a common approach on this.

DBB

jrar wrote: »

but he still loves pulling up roots, eating clematis branches, the odd broadleaf plant, and of course wood !

His latest trick is ripping things off the clothes line and racing around the garden with them

How do you (as in you, plural!) respond when he pulls up roots, eats plants, wood, and grabs clothes off the line?
Be honest!

He's a little bit wild at times so we really need to do some obedience training with him - I leave him off the lead sometimes in the local park but he rarely comes to you when you call him, and he is so easily distracted by ANY other dog and thinks every other dog is his new best friend - regardless of the size of the dog.

Have you taught him a recall though?
It takes a fair bit of targeted work and some suitable gear to get a good recall established in most dogs... it's not such a good idea to let him loose when you know he's going to ignore any pleas to come back (pleas that are just noises... he hasn't learned any meaning to them until you teach him), because it's not a good idea to allow our young dogs to rehearse the exxact behaviours we're trying to avoid. Offering him treats as he runs around is not enough... it's the right idea, but comes nowhere close to actually teaching an effective recall.

Really wish we knew his background as it might help us a lot in dealing with him -

Agree with Peasant here... he just sounds like every other untrained, full-of-energy young dog out there. His current behaviour is unlikely to be related to his background, other than his background has not included good, consistent training!

Would a stint at obedience classes possibly work for him or should we just keep working on him given that he's still very much a pup ? Is it too early to try to control him - or might we regret it if we don't do it now while he's still young ?

Obedience classes would be good at some point without a doubt, but to be honest, it sounds like there's a lot you have to get right closer to home first, including an effective training approach, a way to prevent him doing things the wrong way at home and on walks, and a united front from you and your wife... to that end, having a one-to-one session with a good trainer can be seriously productive, and I think you'd get far more out of one session than you would out of training classes, for now at least.
But you do have to be careful who you get to help you: dogs like him are often dealt with by rough handling by unqualified, uncertified trainers, and there are wayyyy too many of them out there. If you think a one-to-one session would be good, let us know whereabouts you are, hopefully we can recommend someone who can help you.:)

tk123

jrar wrote: »

SciencePlan dry food for medium-breed pups - he loves it and would eat a lot more than his allocated 3 bowls a day if he were let !

That said, we give him some treats as well (markies, etc.) but he's thin as a whippet so no issues with carrying weight at all

Maybe have a think about ditching the hyper-Hills and switching to a better quality food. I've never met a dog being fed Hills who isn't crazy(!) There's tons of threads on food if you do a search.

jrar

tk123 wrote: »

Maybe have a think about ditching the hyper-Hills and switching to a better quality food. I've never met a dog being fed Hills who isn't crazy(!) There's tons of threads on food if you do a search.

Based on cost alone, I thought this was WAS one of the better quality foods - open to persuasion otherwise as we're still doing learning by trial and error

jrar

peasant wrote: »

His background doesn't really matter as far as his current behaviour is concerned ...it's just normal (large) puppy rambuctiousness combined with a bit of teenage doggy stubborness and selective deafness.

Establish some clear rules, praise and reward when followed / correct or ignore when not.

Stick to the rules and sooner or later the dog will too.

It would help if your wife and you had a common approach on this.

We have a common approach - he just happens to try her patience a little easier/quicker than mine. My reference to him on a one-way road to a pet sanctuary was more a figure of speech i.e. we are somewhat frustrated at the lack of progress.

We have established some rules (no going upstairs, into his crate at mealtimes, waiting for his food to be placed in his crate before diving in i.e. small incremental things) and we know things are not going to magically change or work out overnight

jrar

DBB wrote: »

How do you (as in you, plural!) respond when he pulls up roots, eats plants, wood, and grabs clothes off the line?
Be honest!

Hung out a wash this morning - no problem for 10 mins. Went upstairs to do my teeth and came back to find several items strewn around the garden ! Launched myself out the door at him, let a roar to voice my obvious displeasure and he hopped up and started bouncing around as if to say, catch me if you can. Then he started barking (he never barks !) as I continued to glare at him. Bent down and eventually he circled closer and closer and came to me. I rapped him on the nose and held up some of the clothes he'd pulled down. He slunk away knowing full well he was in the proverbial doghouse. Threw said clothes back into the machine, and turned around to find he'd taken down something else. Went back into the garden at which point he again slunk away. That left just some socks on a rotary clothesline - everything else needing a re-wash. Incredibly, a few hours later I see him sitting on the ground having swapped his bone for a sock as he chewed away. ! I am now ignoring him, he's been outside all of the day and I can see from the frequent visits to the patio door window that he's hurting being ignored (he loves people and being petted and hates to be ignored !)

DBB wrote: »

Have you taught him a recall though?
It takes a fair bit of targeted work and some suitable gear to get a good recall established in most dogs... it's not such a good idea to let him loose when you know he's going to ignore any pleas to come back (pleas that are just noises... he hasn't learned any meaning to them until you teach him), because it's not a good idea to allow our young dogs to rehearse the exxact behaviours we're trying to avoid. Offering him treats as he runs around is not enough... it's the right idea, but comes nowhere close to actually teaching an effective recall.

So talk to me about a recall i.e. what do we need to do to establish something whereby he responds when you call his name ? If I walk him late evening/nighttime in the local park, there is often no other dogs or distractions around, and he'll generally run about 20/30 metres in front, checking out the trees. rolling in fox urine whatever - but if I walk along briskly and call him to follow, then generally he does.

It's only when another dog appears on the horizon that I become invisible to him. I do carry treats in a small tin which I use to get his attention but it's 50/50 as to whether he'll pass on the treat in preference of continuing to play/follow the other dog. I'd swear some nights I could sit down on a bench, and he might eventually come back much later or maybe not at all - he just literally gets totally dominated by whatever has distracted him. When I'm in the park and it's busy, I tend to keep him on the lead.

I did have one person suggest hiding behind items in the park when he's with me but not yet distracted i.e. get him to come looking for me, checking in from time to time that I'm still there, so that might help I suppose in getting him to focus a little more.

DBB

jrar wrote: »

Launched myself out the door at him, let a roar to voice my obvious displeasure and he hopped up and started bouncing around as if to say, catch me if you can. Then he started barking (he never barks !) as I continued to glare at him. Bent down and eventually he circled closer and closer and came to me. I rapped him on the nose and held up some of the clothes he'd pulled down. He slunk away knowing full well he was in the proverbial doghouse.
...
Incredibly, a few hours later I see him sitting on the ground having swapped his bone for a sock as he chewed away. ! I am now ignoring him, he's been outside all of the day and I can see from the frequent visits to the patio door window that he's hurting being ignored (he loves people and being petted and hates to be ignored !)

I promise I'm not trying to get on your case here OP, but to be honest, you pretty much couldn't have handled the situation more wrong!
Sorry! But this is why I really, strongly feel you need to get someone in to help you, because you can clearly see that what you're doing is not working. So, time for a re-think!
You simply must, must, must stop hitting him, ever. Even if hitting was okay, hitting him minutes after he has done something "wrong", as you did, is completely, utterly pointless. He has no clue that you're annoyed with him because he took the washing off the line... dogs are very here-and-now learners, so to him, you randomly appeared in the garden, launched yourself at him... he has probably copped that you're angry but doesn't know why, hence him throwing a whole raft of "calming signals" at you (which you've mistaken for him playing "catch me if you can": one of the most blatent calming signals there is, is the dog acting the clown trying to appease your anger... not that he has any concept of WHY you're angry).
Then, he finally trusts you enough to approach you... and what happens? He gets a thwack on the nose! No wonder his recall hasn't improved!
Can you see what's happening here? He is not learning what you think you're teaching him... in fact, you're teaching him that you're a bit unpredictable and perhaps not to be entirely trusted.
You can leave him out in the garden ignoring him for the next 15 years if you like, it is not going to teach him to stop robbing clothes off the washing line. You're wasting your time, you're not punishing your dog for what you think you're punishing him for, and if he's alone out in the garden, well... there are many young, bored dogs just like him around the country that have nothing else to do to entertain themselves but grab clothes off the line! You've set up a vicious circle here OP, and you're not going to get out of it unless you change things pretty drastically. The mindset that your dog is "hurting" has got to stop OP, it's just not healthy, and it is seriously unconducive to developing a good learning bond with your dog.

You didn't quite answer my question... how have you reacted up to now, historically, when he has robbed clothes off the line? Can I make a guess? I'm thinking that there have been at least a few occasions where he has robbed something, you've yelled, he has run away with stolen socks in his mouth, you've chased him, and he has thought to himself "OMG, this is HILARIOUS... I must do this again! Look at all the laughs I get with the human when I do!"
Dogs don't repeat behaviours unless those behaviours "work" for them to get them some form of reinforcement. When they're doing stuff that we find bold, it is almost always the case that we have actually taught them to do the bold stuff in the first place... albeit inadvertently.

So talk to me about a recall i.e. what do we need to do to establish something whereby he responds when you call his name ? If I walk him late evening/nighttime in the local park, there is often no other dogs or distractions around, and he'll generally run about 20/30 metres in front, checking out the trees. rolling in fox urine whatever - but if I walk along briskly and call him to follow, then generally he does.

It's only when another dog appears on the horizon that I become invisible to him. I do carry treats in a small tin which I use to get his attention but it's 50/50 as to whether he'll pass on the treat in preference of continuing to play/follow the other dog. I'd swear some nights I could sit down on a bench, and he might eventually come back much later or maybe not at all - he just literally gets totally dominated by whatever has distracted him. When I'm in the park and it's busy, I tend to keep him on the lead.

I did have one person suggest hiding behind items in the park when he's with me but not yet distracted i.e. get him to come looking for me, checking in from time to time that I'm still there, so that might help I suppose in getting him to focus a little more.

Again, this is why I feel you need someone to come and help you. There isn't a hope in hell you're going to teach a dog a good recall by bringing a few treats to the park as your opening gambit... and hiding behind trees may help fine-hone an already well-polished recall, but is not appropriate for a complete beginner. Recall training starts at home (and his name should not be used as the recall cue... he hears it in wayyy too many other contexts for it to have any meaning as a recall cue).
Training the recall, as with all obedience cues, must start in a very low-distraction environment, and needs to be strongly, very strongly reinforced using seriously high-value rewards and warm praise and petting when he gets it right at home. If he won't come to you at home (and remembering that he is likely to be somewhat worried about approaching you due to your random outbursts of anger that he does not understand), there's not a chance he'll come to you in the park with the slightest distraction going on.
Effective training involves starting with making things very simple, in a calm, quiet environment, and gradually, gradually introducing more rules as the dog improves. Asking an untrained dog to come back to you in the park when there's another dog about would be like asking me to fly a plane... I'd make a balls of it because I don't know how. But if I got the proper training and plenty of effective practise in, I could probably make a good go of it... see what I mean?
Sorry OP, if I sound a bit harsh, but I do think you're being quite unfair to your dog, but I don't think you want to be or that you mean to be?
Seriously... get some help. It will be worth its weight in gold if you find a good trainer. Let us know where you live so we can point you in the right direction