Eating Wood

[RobinM]

Came home to find my triple dresser eaten. It's being picked up by the person who made my den furniture next Friday and it will be repaired and delivered back the following week. $400.00.

 

I plan on spraying the dresser this week with something as a deterent.

 

Did I read someone that when they eat wood there is a defienceny of some sort?

 

Oh and by the way, it was the perfect Ollie who did this while we were at work. He is seperated from the others by an x-pen- in the same room, just divided. I keep the 3 boys seperate by the open ex-pens.

Edited February 1, 2010 by RobinM

[TheFullHouse]

You wouldn't believe the number of pieces of furniture I have with damage on them from different dogs chewing on them, usually just after they came home to live with us. I don't think it has anything to do with anything nutritional because once they got in trouble for it, they didn't do it any more. Most of the time I think it comes from being bored.

[CaliforniaGreys]

No furniture ruined here, but Ekko takes the pictures off the wall and eats the wood frames.

 

I think Judy is right, it's boredom, although in Ekko's case, she's just bad to the bone

[RobinM]

Ok- we can leave him with a frozen kong since he is by himself. And spray.. I want to catch him doing it so we can say NO and spray water so he knows that is not acceptable but he's done it while we are away.

[Tallgreydogmom]

We had that problem with SKY. We kept her crated (huge crate) and she wore a muzzle with muzzle cup (could chew thru the muzzle) when we were home. Thank goodness she stopped chewing after awhile just as suddenly as she had started.

[Guest KennelMom]

Our house is pretty much leather and wrought iron I think they just like the texture and/or taste of wood. Can you muzzle him when your gone? Might not be SA as much as just boredom or because it's fun.

[Guest DylanGospel]

I came home to a foster who was happily gnawing away on the wooden bed frame. The only thing that worked was Grannick's Bitter Apple (sp?) It was recommended by a friend who trains horses and had used it in the past to spray on stalls.

[Guest DawnsPT]

My " good boy" Sereno did this 2 different times in the last 3 weeks on 2 different pieces of wood molding in our house. I caught him in the act both times and gave him a stern NO and " a what the heck is wrong with you?' under my breath, lol. He didn't go back to the 1st piece, but a week later moved on to the 2nd piece . Same NO. so far, so good. I think the pups are just bored with being in the house this winter. Come on Spring

[Chicocat]

If nothing else works, you could muzzle him while you are at work. Darlin ate the end of the bannister sometime in the first couple months she was home then never did anything again until she was 9. LOL

 

Now she takes the TP off the wall and eats the cardboard and will take paper out of the printer for a snack. One night I had the desk drawer slightly open and walked to the other room -- when I came back she was helping herself to a scratch pad. LOL

 

Hopefully this behavior will pass for Ollie. I think I'm stuck with being creative and careful with Darlin.

Edited January 23, 2010 by Chicocat

[cleptogrey]

i was just discussing this w/ a trainer that i have known for many years. her suggestion was to buy, located in the spice rack at the supermarket, alum and make a paste, elmer's glue consistancy. spread that on the area- it's non-toxic and very bitter. when she has a really bad chewer she takes a tad and puts it on the pup's tounge and uses a negative word- wrong and they associate that w/ the nasty taste. i wouldn't put it on the tounge, try the schmear first.

 

i have a foster here w/ a need for vitamin W, she has chewed the corner of our antique welsh dresser...oy...i repaired it and hit the corner of the dresser and said wrong a couple of times during the day. she now knows that i am crazy and that the dresser is wrong...but for saftey she has a muzzle on when i am not watching. she also was caught red tounged licking the pie safe and a bench.... she did stop when i made the eh-eh sound and wrong. but we can only see so much.

 

oh, i found tooth marks on the molding and she has tons of marrow bones and hoofs to chew and exercises like no tomorrow. go know?

[Guest cogito]

... Most of the time I think it comes from being bored.

 

That's always my first guess. Here, it's Gretel...and her targets are stair treads and molding.

[RobinM]

Furniture has been removed to the "furniture" doctor. 3 large pieces of furniture and the chair to the desk is going to cost me $700.00 to repair.

 

It would have cost a lot more to replace. We picked bitter yuck and it is really yucky. My already huge bedroom is soooooooooooooooooooooo big without the furniture. Tempting not to bring it back in!

 

good thing I love Ollie....

[robinw]

Loca enjoyed eating wood and feasted on both furniture and baseboards. i think she was also bored. i handled it by not investing a lot of $$ in furniture.

[Guest AGirlNamedMe]

I've seen weirdo Bella licking the wood on one of our baby gates.

 

I don't know what her story is sometimes

[carronstar]

Miss Aquitaine is a wood lover. She loves the art deco buffet, the art deco cocktail cabinet, the art deco coffee table... she's also fond of plaster. She is now muzzled when I am not home. When she starts licking when I am home, she gets a firm "NO!" and looks at me like I'm crazy.

 

Scarlett loved wood too but she never ate anything at home, she just ate the wood chips in the dog run or elm saplings. She truly did love her elm saplings. I think she ate enough to fill one of the little glens in Central Park.

[RobinM]

Here is the damage my adorable, sweet Ollie did! Got to love him...

 

 

 

 

this table was custom made for us 11/08. We paid 2K for it. I almost had a heart attack when I saw this 3 days after the intial damage.

 

 

But it is all in the furniture hospital getting fixed. Repairable, just expensive and money that could have been put to better use elsewhere.

 

We are spraying the wood in the house and leaving him with large hard bones now instead of just toys. I don't want to leave the kong because if it goes under a piece of furniture he may start gnawing at the wood.

[Guest mcsheltie]

One of ours ate the entire corner off a nightstand. Had never done it before and has never done it since...