Need advice from dog owners

M

midnight

Cathlete
I have a beautiful, well-behaved three year old yellow Labrador Retriever. She is affectionate and everything you could want in a dog. But, she has one bad habit that concerns me. She eats wood. Like any dog, especially a retriever, she picks up sticks and carries them. Sometimes she just crunches on them but lots of times she actually consumes them!! This just can't be good for her and I can't get her to stop, no matter how many times I yell at her to "leave it!!". Any advice??

Lois

"Don't forget to breathe!"
 
I'm assuming that she has not had any major medical issues by consuming the wood? (obstuctions, etc) Hope not! I can only offer the obvious advice: limit her access to it (ie pick up fallen branches, replace wood chips with gravel,etc), provide her with lots of other "approved" chewing objects, play fetch with balls or other toys. I'm sure you have tried most/all of these! Good Luck!!
 
Firstly, do you give her chew bones to satisfy her need to chew? Some dogs need to chew on something and never 'outgrow' that. I have four dogs and one is a chewer. The other three never touch the chew bones but the one dog chews on them all day long and usually carries one with her from room to room. Make sure you are providing good quality rawhide chew bones...I prefer the rolled bones as they don't come apart like the twisted ones shaped to look like real bones. You can also offer your dog real bones to chew. Pick up beef short ribs or soup bones at your grocer but be warned...if your dog is not used to eating raw bones he may throw up the marrow so...don't let him on the good furniture until he's used to them in a couple of weeks.

Of course, there could always be an underlying medical condition so you should mention your dogs desire to chew on sticks at your next vet appt.

And of course, dogs are dogs. Part of being a dog is chewing and eating gross things they find in the yard and road ditch. One of ours brought up the remains of a racoon yesterday, complete with all it's teeth still intact. That was a pleasant surprise first thing in the morning.

So, what I would suggest is if you don't keep rawhide chew bones for your dog then go out and buy some today and put them where your dog likes to lay, in the kitchen, in his kennel, in his bed, where ever but make sure there are two or three available at all times to encourage your dog to use them. If you already have these and your dog won't use them then I would try real bones, raw not cooked bones, and see if those make him happy. You may never be able to break you dog of chewing on sticks...it's just dog nature. Our dogs love to run out in the pasture in the summer and bring up horse apples and no matter how many times I tell them "No" and they put it down...the next time they are let out to potty they run and get new turds. Such is life with dogs. :)
 
I have two german shephards and every so often, they try to eat sticks too. They'll be running and playing with one and I will notice that they settle down and start really chewing and eating it. When they go out to play, I always do a quick scan of the yard and make sure that the sticks are not everywhere. The less there are, the less chance there is of them eating them. I also started buying more "difficult" chews for them. Once that take longer and keep them more occupied. That way, they don't chew until they have to chew (to eat, for their chews, etc. but not for wood). Work with your dog on the "leave it" command. He should "leave it" no matter what "it" is when you command him. That way, even when he starts chewing, you can stop him. Mention it to your vet. Mine seemed to think that they were just being animals and that as long as I could get them to drop it (which I can, etiehr by making them or by distracting them), they'd be fine. Ar ethere bathroom issues? Perhaps he is trying to fix that with the sticks?

...if they could only talk...
 
We had a lab once and had the same problem. Our dog ended up eating pieces of the shed and pieces of wood from our deck. What I did was I got some hot sauce and put on the wood. I also used perfume....both seemed to help. We ended up finding a good home for our lab because when we moved into a ranch house, she was literally jumping out of the windows whenever she would see a cat, rabbit or squirrel. Our screens were damaged also and we had to replace them. We lived in a split level home before and the windows were higher up and never was a problem before.

Charlotte~~
 
I have to tell you that this is the most spoiled rotten dog who is well-supplied with rawhide chews, pig ears (yuck), toys, beef marrow bones and anything else that she can chew. The only time she does not respond to the "leave it" command is with the sticks. The problem with limiting her access to the sticks is that we walk on a path in the woods so she can be off-leash. I do put her on the leash so I can control her access to the sticks but she really needs to be able to run. I guess I will just keep working with her and eventually she'll get it. I have not wanted to use cookies to distract her because she has a tendency to put on weight but maybe that's what I'll do until she gets it and then wean her off them (yeah right). Maybe I should bring a tennis ball with me and distract her with that?

Thanks for all your input,

Lois

"Don't forget to breathe!"
 
I have a 4-year-old black lab who chews wood occasionally, and she used to love to chew up shoes and would go so far as to pull the insoles out and chew those up too. She'll also pick up sticks or rocks in the yard sometimes and start to chew them, but we handle it by taking whatever it is away immediately and giving her something else as a distraction. We did the same thing with the shoes--if we caught her with one, we told her no and took it away right away and gave her something else, like a ball or a stuffed toy, something that was "approved." I think she eventually associated the balls and toys with being a lot more fun than the shoes and rocks, because the balls could be thrown and bounced and played with and the shoes couldn't.

She doesn't show any interest in shoes anymore, since she has plenty of other toys around. I think if you show a consistent response when she's chewing the wood and give her a more appealing alternative, she may get past it. Bailey still chews sticks sometimes if she's bored, but usually we can get around it by showing her a tennis ball... she's not too attached to wood as a toy, and tennis balls/squeaky balls are her favorite.

We do give her rawhide to chew sometimes, but she tries to chew it too fast and tends to choke, which is scary. Most of the time we give her dental chews, like Greenies, to help with her chewing needs. They're edible and break into smaller pieces than the rawhides do, and she and her sister, Chewy, absolutely love them. :) You may not be able to completely rid your dog of her chewing tendencies--she is a lab, after all--but they're smart animals, and they can learn quickly.
 
Sounds like she needs further training on leave it. I use clicker training, a positive method. Works quite well. You shouldn't have to yell any of your commands. She "should" respond to it at any tone. Work on the command more and I'll bet she figures it out. You could also work on a drop it command instead of leave it.

Also you should only say a command once. Then help her with the command. You don't have to be rough, but if you said leave it, then she needs to leave it.

Also a few people suggested rawhides, personally I don't give rawhides as I've known many people who have had dogs choke on them. One of mine choked twice and that was enough for me. I give raw soup marrow bones and only with supervision.

Colleen
 
Rover does that if he has no chewing sticks or rawhide. So I have plenty of that stuff to keep him from chewing on sticks.

Dutchie
 
Thanks for all of your really helpful advice. I was just surprised because she has never chewed anything inappropriate at home, even when she was a new puppy. I was hyper-vigilant on our walk today and she was very good about following my "leave it!" command (delivered in a firm tone of voice) when she started crunching on a stick. I did not use the command when she was just carrying the stick in her mouth. I used praise as a reward rather than food. She has always learned very quickly and I hope that will be the case with this. The test will come when the snow finally melts and there are sticks everywhere. I just need to be more consistent. Anyway, I am going to buy her a new chewy today for being such a good girl.

Thanks again!!
Lois

"Don't forget to breathe!"
 
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