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HELP!! He chews my walls!

20K views 24 replies 15 participants last post by  Ucdcrush 
#1 ·
Titan is a year old 90 lb GSD. He loves nothing more than to chew my walls when I am not home. I'm not sure how to get him to stop doing this without restricting him to a kennel all day, 8 hrs, while I am at work. He chews the wood on my stairs and rips the wall paper of the walls. He has recently started chewing the dry wall after the wall paper is off. I've punished him, I've covered it up with something, I've sprayed this "OFF!!" spray on it that I got from a pet store. So far nothing works, and while I would love to just redo everything, I am renting in Germany and can't. The landlords are having a cow! Help please!!! :help:
 
#2 ·
My pup - 10 months old, is in his crate for about 8 hours a day. We walk in the morning and again in the evening, plus other exercise.

Sometimes, like today, when i work from home, and on the weekends its less, but what can you do?
 
#3 ·
He needs to be crated.

What if he starts eating something else and he gets something stuck in his throat and chokes on it, what if he chews on something toxic and it kills him? For his safety and for the safety of your house, he needs to be in a crate when you are not home.

My GSD chewed the walls when I was gone for 4 hours. He is in his crate anywhere from 2-8 hours. He loves his crate.

 
#5 ·
Well sounds like so far crating him is my only option. I crated him for a while but with him being my first dog, I wasn't sure if that was wrong of me.. which I'm glad that it's not because life was much better that way, no chewed up house, no yelling or getting angry, and definitely no sick pup from ingesting something, which hasn't happened yet, thank goodness..
 
#6 ·
I think even though you don't want to crate you should. I know there are other members here who crate for that long. I know you will worry that he is in the crate for too long, but you can't have him tearing your whole house apart either. Since he is older he can be in a crate for 8 hrs. and be just fine. If you absolutely don't want to do a crate then choose a room and double baby gate/close the door to keep him only in one room. Give him a kong with treats and frozen peanut butter in it, lots of chew toys. If you can leave a radio on or tv on for noise for him that sometimes helps. I would not recommend the radio/tv be in the same room with him if he is loose though. I think crating is your best option though.
 
#9 ·
My female is 15 months. She is not allowed free roam. If she is not under supervision she is kenneled. So should yours. He can't handle freedom right now. My dogs can deal with 12 hours of kennel if required. If I know I'm going to have a >8 hour day the go with me but are confined to my FJ like this:

This way I can let them out at lunch. Of course this isn't possible for most people.

Punishing is just hurting your relationship. He doesn't have any clue why you are punishing him. If you're bent on not kenneling him, get some bitter apple spray, and soak a cotton ball with it. Put it in his mouth and hold his muzzle shut for 2-3 minutes. He will hate it. It will be unpleasant. It will imprint in his mind how nasty that taste is. Then you can just lightly spray whatever he is damaging or you don't want damaged. Without the imprinting the spray is mostly worthless. I have two dogs trained this way and neither has ever caused any damage in my house at all
 
#12 ·
Also, my male has been free roam since slightly after 1 year old. He can handle it. My female isn't ready, but we test it occasionally... she has some separation anxiety issues which manifests itself as defecation, but we're working through this slowly and I expect to have it resolved before the year is out
 
#21 ·
crating because of chewing walls

In Germany, do you have access to toys such as a Kong? If so, you might want to purchase one and smear some peanut butter or cheez spread inside it and freeze it overnight. When you leave, give this to him in the crate so that he has something to occupy him. I also use the big smoked cow femur heads for dogs when my GSD is crated or kennelled. He is less anxious in the crate and/or kennel and does better.

Shannon
 
#22 ·
In Germany, do you have access to toys such as a Kong? If so, you might want to purchase one and smear some peanut butter or cheez spread inside it and freeze it overnight. When you leave, give this to him in the crate so that he has something to occupy him. I also use the big smoked cow femur heads for dogs when my GSD is crated or kennelled. He is less anxious in the crate and/or kennel and does better.

Shannon
Make sure you know how the dog does with the bone before doing so. My male is ok, but my female tries to swallow bigger hunks than I'm comfortable with.

Also, they make nursing bitch pheromone emitters that calm and sooth a dog, particularly young dogs. I have them. They seem to work (in the second month)... no issues have happened since I started
 
#24 ·
I am with everyone else. I have talked about our Labrador Duchess (R.I.P) and how she was probably kin to the dog in Marley and Me due to the stuff she got in to.
Eating walls was one of them.
The only way was crating her and make sure the teeth can't fit through the bars where the walls can still be gnawed on.
We have to save dogs from themselves.
 
#25 ·
I have found a strong connection between "not enough exercise" and chewed up things.. walls, molding, trim, doors, trees. Crating is definitely the safer option but if you want to try letting him run free in the house again, be sure to exercise the heck out of him first.

If you don't do this already: put a dog backpack on him, and work your way up to 10-15+ lbs in there, and walk him for 30+ minutes to wear him down some before you leave.

My daily routine is to walk the dogs 35-45 minutes in the morning, wearing their backpacks (12 lbs for my 65 lb dog and ~17 lbs for my 90 lb dog) and that seems to minimize excess chewing. Now usually the worst thing I find is some yard digging and their beds moved around :)
 
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