Dulcie is seven months old. She’s absolutely adorable and despite still having accidents on occasion, is a good little dog. (Check this out…I love how she tilts her little head to the side and looks up at me like she’s just a bit confused by the crazy human!)
There’s one problem with her…she eats EVERYTHING.
I am serious. I’ve dug mulch, stones, pieces of plastic, clumps of hair, bits of paper, leaves, the odd vegetable peeling…anything you can think of…out of her mouth. Now, I know dogs like to scavenge, but this is bad. She’s now eaten the corners of my windowsills! Literally chewed them down to bare wood (which I have then pulled out of her mouth.)
We have barricaded one of the big houseplants because she kept getting at it. Then she moved on to the herbs in my windowsills. Heck, at least they’re edible. She obviously likes Basil…one plant is entirely stripped.
I’ve tried saying no, sharply yelling at her, pulling her away, giving treats to come away. I even resorted to pepper! Sprinkled a tiny bit on the windowsills.
I really must take her out for Mexican…she obviously likes the spicy stuff.
I have a feeling I know what’s behind it–she was the runt and when we first brought her home, she would run to her bowl, “sneak” a piece of food and run away to a corner to eat it. Took her forever to eat a whole bowl. So I think she’s in fear of starvation, despite being very well fed. .
Anybody have any suggestions? Ever dealt with this before? All advice is appreciated!
Leslie Kelly used to say she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up, but then she discovered Nancy Drew books. Being a flashlight-under-the-covers-nose-in-book reader throughout her childhood, she couldn’t think of anything else she’d rather do as an adult than continue to lose herself in fictional stories. Her real life marriage of 20 years to the man of her dreams is a constant reinforcement that happily-ever-afters really can happen…and that they’re worth writing about. Living in Maryland, Leslie spends her non-writing time laughing a lot with the above-mentioned romance hero and their three daughters. Though an author of more than thirty sexy, contemporary comedies, she has recently branched out to write dark romantic suspense under the pseudonym Leslie Parrish.
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Aw what a cutie. Wish I could help you Leslie, but I got nothing. Good luck though.
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She looks like a baby dust mop!
OK seriously … she’s going to hurt herself one day! You need to have her on a leash all the time while breaking this habit. when she gets near something she shouldn’t have, wait until she goes for it, jerk the leash, and praise her WHEN she leaves it alone. That’s all I can think of! That way she’s getting more praise than not when she learns to go near things without touching them. That’s what we’re doing w/Bailey’s sock from the laundry obsession. It’s taking forever to work. But that’s what you’re supposed to do. Let them see they can be in these places by praising them when they aren’t doing something bad.
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Believe it or not, my mini long-haired dapple daschund eats cat poopies out of the cat box :scratch3:
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Both my lab mix and my wire haired doxie eat the cat poop. Drives me nuts! the doxie is also a sock thief, although she usually just runs and hides with the dirty socks. I did find a half eaten one of hubby’s the other day though and that is unusual. I still haven’t decided who ate it since neither dog nor the kitten who steals socks from my drawer barfed anything up.
I agree with Carly and also I would find a fav chew toy and replace it with whatever she is chewing on and praise her when she takes the toy.
There may be an underlying problem too- have you mentioned it to the vet?
She is a cutie so how can you stay mad at her for long, right?
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I wish I could help, but my dad’s dog never chewed anything up but her toys and rawhide bones. She can get the noise-maker out of a chew toy in under a minute, but she is the first lab I’ve seen that didn’t try to chew up the house. I really like Carly’s suggestion with the leash and giving Dulcie her own toys to chew on might work too. She is so cute. It would be hard for me to stay mad at her long.
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Oh, she is too cute, Leslie! As far as the bad habit, try Carly’s suggestion and you also might ask your vet. They might have the name of a good trainer who might be able to help you. Good luck.
Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day. It’s still raining and cool here.
Have a great day,
Cher
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Hm… dogs that eat garbage? No way! LOL – but seriously, not good. I know a lot of breeders recommend bitter apple – it’s a spray you should be able to get at pets stores. Douse things in it. And/or if you see Dulcie chewing on something, even after it’s been sprayed with bitter apple – spray it directly in her mouth. Seems cruel, but it works. And I have to admit, watching an oversized puppy try to work the taste out of it’s mouth after the breeder sprayed it was too amusing.
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I don’t have any pets, but I did some dogsitting last month and the owners had the bitter apple spray limecello mentioned. It worked really well. Carly’s suggestion sounds really good, too.
Of course, I’m with Cher on asking the vet if they have any suggestions of something you can try. It can’t hurt to have back-up plans if something doesn’t work.
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Puppies teethe just like babies do and just like babies they need something to chew on. They make some really great puppy toys for just this purpose. But if this doesn’t seem to be the problem your vet will have some better ideas. :dog1:
:dog1:
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Just consulted with my son-in-law whose Great Dane just about ate their whole house!
It happened when Dakota was teething. They tried all kinds of chew toys and rawhide
bones, she just ate them, then went back to wood items. They tried the bitter apple
spray, she ate the bitter apple bottle! He finally gave her one of his old wooden bats.
She chewed it to a point, but left the windowsills alone. Once her permanent teeth
were all in, the chewing began to lessen. Now at age 11, she only indulges in an
occasional mouthful of grass!
Pat Cochran
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What a cutie Delucie is
she sounds like my girlfriend’s dog I forget what he is hmm I think Bassett Hound and he has eaten remotes for the tv’s batteries and all, rat poision and they do the same thing barricade the house up, but sometimes they forget and just the other day he drank wine because my girlfriend’s hubby left a glass of wine on the coffee table and he drank it without tipping the glass over. :scratch3: he isn’t a puppy either
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When i trained my lab mix i used positive reenforcment. Whenever he was chewing on something he wasn’t supposed to i would say ‘no bite’ then when he let go i would say ‘good no bite’ and pet him like crazy, it took awhile but he soon learned if he was good he would get lots of love. Good luck
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I had the same trouble with my doggie Bridgette when she was a puppy.
At 3 months Bridgette chewed off the head of a disposable razor.
That accident cost me $100 for x-rays. thank goodness i noticed that the razor was missing. I had been cleaning my bathtub and had taken everything out and when I put stuff back in I noticed the missing razor.
I found Bridgette under my bed with the handle of the razor in her mouth.
the vet gave her a few tablespoons of peroxide and she threw up the razor.
They told me if it had gotten into her intestines she would have had to have had surgery.
WE have had to use the peroxide rememdy a few ti,es during the puppy phase. the nastiest thing she ever ate was a dead turtle out of the pond. YUCK!!
After that episode everything that could be chewed or found my a dog was put up out of reach.
At 6 months old she chewed up a brand new pair of ballet pointe shoes.
My daughter got in trouble because she knew not to leave anything laying around for the dog to get hold of.
I say just treat her like you did you kids when they were crawling around the house.
Have lots of squeaky and fuzzy toys for her to play with.
I think most of the time the puppies are bored and just want attention so they act up. Just like a little kid.
Good luck
:monkey :monkey
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Thanks so much for all the great tips and advice!
I hadn’t tried Bitter Apple with Dulcie because we used it with Cassie and she licked it up like it was ice cream.
I will definitely give some of these other suggestions a shot!
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Les — Dulcie is just too adorable! Unfortunately, I don’t have any advice for you. I’ve never had a dog that chewed stuff — thank goodness!
However, like Linda Gates, my dog does occasionally indulge in those cat poopies out of the cat box. So gross!!! What is up with that? We call those cat liter encrusted logs “kitty-Roca” — like almond roca, because that’s what it looks like.
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We have a black lab who has separation anxiety when we got him at age 3 long story short he was a mess so living in Seattle there was a local talk show that would have a dog trainer Uncle Maddy on he works miracles so I went to the website http://www.unclemaddy.com and emailed a question I figured may get a letter back less then 24 hours I got a phone call I ended up buying his book I think it is call no bad dogs just bad behavior. I even bought training videos, and attended a class when he was in Seattle this all happened over a period of time we had gotten a boxer puppy so needed more help. It helped both dogs and he has great tips one thing we used for chewing was sour powder he recommended you mix it with water and made a paste. any way he has a ton of tips I have been to his website in a long time but you can check it out.