dog eating the wall??

jsabina

Hi everybody,
Jago is six months now.
We just went to the vet for the general check up and he is fine.
He has a last puppy teeth..

He is sleeping with me the night and it's a couple of nights that he wanted to play or couldn't sleep for some reason.. but he was fine, not sick.
As I brought him for short walk but then back to sleep he started chewing something that I thought was a toy or bone... and then I realized was the wall behind the pillow!!
I moved the bed from the wall now as he was doing it again last night.
There is a hole and all blood around now!! :eek:
(I have a fantastic disgusting photo)

Why is he doing that?
he has a lot of toys and bones for teething and things like that

he shouldn't be bored as we are going for regular walks and he was playing with his friends ..
???

Chucken

Various answers here: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061115163746AAmnhFg

I had a dog that used to gnaw on the bannister in the night time. I just made his last walk a bit longer so he was tired at bed time and not able to get up to mischief.

jsabina

I'll go to read..
Today we went for a very looong walk and he seems to be tired..
Too long.. and I know that maybe it's wrong.
I've read that puppies should not be walked too much and we have been out for three hours..

Let's see, he seems to be tired maybe tonight will sleep

Stheno

What breed is he?

jsabina

crossbreed.. the mother irish setter, father I don't know..

hare

Spray perfume on the wall hes chewing.

jsabina

Auhm.. sunday we went for a loooong walk and he slept fine..
yesterday I was busy and we went for shorter walks... tonight again eating the wall in another part grrr..
two (small) holes now :P

so I supposed he has a loot of energies and he needs more exercise..
the question was always about the "5 minutes walks for every month".. he should do 30 minutes a day.... but he will eat the whole house

andreac

Sorry, but 3 hours is far far too much for a 6 month old pup so please stop bringing this pup for such long walks, you will do damage to the poor pups joints etc.

RubyGirl

Maybe look into crate training him, your def walking him to much.

andreac

You need to look into keeping him occupied other ways than just walks.

Have you tried teaching him tricks, doing some obedience with him? These are great for tiring the mind.
Kongs are great too and keeps them busy for a while.

But you really need to cut back on these long walks as its very unfair.

Think of it like a baby/toddler, would you expect a toddler to walk for 3 hours??

aisher

My own dog started to chew on the back wall of our extension when she was a pup - much the same age as yours is now. Thankfully it did not last long but she did manage to knock out a fair chunk of the concrete! It was when she was alone in garden and we seldom caught her in the act - she did stop so I think it was down to the teething. You could offer some chews toys to give your dog an alternative item to chew and of course if you are not able to supervise her 100% try crating her when you are not around.

nc6000

We had something similar with our Cocker when he was a pup. He chewed up most of the skirting boards in the room he slept in and also had a fair bit of plasterboard.

Didn't do him any harm and I think he eventually give it up.

That reminds me, I must get the wall fixed.

are you serious

Did the wall end up like this :eek:

Izzy done this twice at home! Could have killed her.. Luckily enough she grew out of liking the taste of paint and plaster board

looking_around

I had a sheepdog, very energetic that would eat the walls too >.>
She was very intelligent and we took her for long walks bout 2-3 hours daily (if not longer). and I would train her tricks too(This is good for bored dogs). I've never worried about taking a pup for long walks, they've all been fine.

like others here, she grew out of it.

Do you give your dog fresh bones? like from the butchers? (never small ones). It could be something to keep them entertained at night. There's also "treat balls".

I wouldn't crate train, I don't think it's necessary(and personally I don't like it), but "time out" like you would for kids can actually be effective.

**Vai**

Time outs are pointless as the dog wont understand why its happening. Crate him until he grows out if it. Certainly worked for me. It is only a phase though so dont worry too much.

andreac

Crate training is brilliant and i highly recommend it. Its the only thing that will stop a chewer. You have to be actually able to prevent them for actually doing the chewing to physically stop them. Time outs wouldnt work for a dog, sorry...

jsabina

Ok first of all guys I am not walking him every day three hours!
I would like to have so much time!
Usually he gets a 10 minutes out at lunch time... but ten minutes where we do 500mt sniffing around!!
And in the evening we go to a green field near my house.. we are out for around 30 minutes... but not walking as it was hiking!
Sometimes he meets his friends and play, sometimes he just wonder around.

Sunday has been an exception. We went to the park and in total we were out for three hours. And it comprehend the car travel, the sniffing and playing.
Please don't tell me I am unfair because I am doing as much as I can to take care of this puppy. We go to training and I am reading lot of books and websites

He has his kong, he has bones for dogs (not from the butcher, I'll try that), we try to do every day a bit of training. Yesterday the fetch and leave it for around 15 minutes, and then we played with his ball (in the small living room) and so on.

I will try to crate him the night
I am sorry just because he is doing very good, I crated him when he was very young and now it's just this "eating the wall".

Thanks for all the answers!

andreac

At 6 months hes still very much a baby and the chewing will continue for a good while, esp at the mo while hes teething.

Crate training really is the only way to go.

Sorry but you did say 3 hours so thats why we said its too much if it was a full 3 hour walk.

jsabina

Thanks andreac,
sorry sometimes I write maybe in a wrong way.
I understood that it's important to not walk them too much and thanks for all your attention and answers on the forum.
It's true that it's not easy to understand when is too much as he never seems to be tired.
But we do always very quieeet walks and what I try to do is to socialize him as much as I can.

I'll do again the crate in the night.. give a try..

I've another question.. maybe I'll open another thread soon :P
Thanks!!

looking_around

**Vai** wrote: »

Time outs are pointless as the dog wont understand why its happening. Crate him until he grows out if it. Certainly worked for me. It is only a phase though so dont worry too much.

the time outs, is not necessarily, leaving him on a step. but for example, placing a dog muzzle on him for a few minutes, every time he goes for the wall can work. I'll admit, won't work for every dog.
But it did work to stop my latest going for the cat food. and one previous from barking. So, it can work.
placing him in a crate for a few minutes instead of the muzzle could also work. I'm just against placing a dog in a crate all night.

ISDW

looking_around wrote: »

the time outs, is not necessarily, leaving him on a step. but for example, placing a dog muzzle on him for a few minutes, every time he goes for the wall can work. I'll admit, won't work for every dog.
But it did work to stop my latest going for the cat food. and one previous from barking. So, it can work.
placing him in a crate for a few minutes instead of the muzzle could also work. I'm just against placing a dog in a crate all night.

That is most definitely NOT what crate training is, it should not be seen by the dog as a punishment, but rather as his/her place.

not really sure how a dog would associate having a muzzle put on after an event as a deterrent to do something.

DBB

Time outs are an extremely effective training tool for any species, used properly, and used in a species specific way. But I would not use a muzzle as a time out, as this is veering too close to being too aversive in terms of punishment, and way too fiddley to really act as a proper time out. In fact, it's not a time out at all... It's aversion training.
Removing the pup into an isolated place, for 30ish seconds, calmly, is far more ethical and less aversive. This is a time out. But like any punishment, timing is key, and only effective if the dog is caught in the act.

jsabina

I don't know what are time outs to be honest, I will google it :P
The thing is that he is doing that while I am sleeping... and I don't wake up straight away and I am not that lucid to be able to stop him immediatly :P

looking_around

ISDW wrote: »

That is most definitely NOT what crate training is, it should not be seen by the dog as a punishment, but rather as his/her place.

not really sure how a dog would associate having a muzzle put on after an event as a deterrent to do something.

I know what crate training is. But I wouldn't do it. I prefer to use it as deterrent. not a 'bed time' spot.

different people, different methods of training.

**Vai**

Different methods definitely. In my experience the time out is a pointless exercise (thats just my experience) and using the crate as punishment is shocking. Much, much worse than calmly asking a dog to sleep there rather than chew the house up.

Bid08

we had the same thing with eating a whole in the wall, we got up one night to awful noise went down to their room and here was a huge hole in the wall, you could put 2 fists in it.

we found clove oil great to stop them chewing, they really hate the taste of it (just dont put in on white plastics like washing machine / dryers etc cos it turns the plastic a disgusting yellow colour, we learned the hard way)