My english bulldog will be a year old this month and I can't break her out of the habit of eating or chewing on stuff she shouldn't. I started out trying to offer a toy or treat whenever she got a hold of something she shouldn't but she would take off and run with the object. I'd take off and run in the other direction in hopes she would turn and follow or would just turn around and ignore her so she doesn't think it is a game but she would keep going. Since that wasn't working I tried the saying a firm no along with clapping my hands or shaking a can with coins. That would only startle her for a second and then she would go back to the item or run with it. Since she has gotten bigger she now tries to swallow the item whole if she notices that she got caught. She actually swallowed a whole sock one day and threw it back up. We didn't even know she had gotten a hold of one. Since then I tried using a spray bottle with water which worked for a short bit. Then I got some Fooey bitter spray and tried deluted cayenne pepper spray but she likes that stuff. I've been keeping the place picked up but she started chewing the furniture. I have plenty of chew toys around, she eats as much as she wants, and she has been going on 2-4 mile daily walks since it is warm out. She chews on the furniture with us in the room and we will tell her no and make her go to a different area of the room but as soon as we sit back down she runs back over and starts again or chews on something else. She chewed the side of a leg to an old actual wooden dresser and had wood splinters everywhere. She did that in 10 minutes when I had to run to the bathroom and my husband thought it was her nylabone she was chewing. I'm afraid she will destroy more furniture or eat something that will kill her. We can't seem to get her to learn anything even though she isn't stupid. She tries to out smart us to get what she wants. Must be the bulldog stubborness. I plan on going to visit my parents this summer for a month and I'm worried that when I come back she will have everything chewed. My husband doesn't keep a close eye on her. Because of her chewing she has to be crated every night or when we leave for a couple hours. One day I got some items I know she tries to eat and put them on the floor and pretended like I wasn't looking and everytime she tried to touch them I told her no and gave her a spray with water. She wouldn't stop leaving them alone after a few hours of telling her no and spraying her. I'm hoping someone knows of something that she might not like the taste of to spray on the furniture to at least get her to stop chewing on them since we can't pick them up. I need something that won't stain the furniture or carpet.
I crate my dogs all the time as well,they chew or tear everything up if you aren't watching them.SO I keep them crated any time we can't watch them and when they are out all the doors are closed to the other rooms in the house.I buy them bones from the butcher they are really cheap and everybody loves them.Big Knuckle bones.I think if you keep a big knuckle bone handy and keep an eye on her.Keep everything up that she might like to chew.If the furniture is always the target your punishment needs to be more stern,and understood.So if she knows it is off limits,try using the electric collar and nick along with a verbal nr use a tab on a prong collar,and give a sharp snap on that with the verbal.As soon as she stops give her a positive,good girl no chew something... to communicate what she is doing is good.Communication is the key and repetition.Don't think they understand unless it has been drilled don't punish for mistakes and don't expect the world.There is nothing wrong with crating.And remember a good dog is a tired dog.Both mental and physical.So work on the down and holding it.My female is 3yrs.old and she will get into everything so I sit on my computer put her in a down right next to me and all is fine until I release her
i would not ever recoomend using the bitter tasting sprays since those can be toxic if a dog ingests too much not to mention alot of breeds jsut dont mind the taste a really good one i have found you make yourself wont make your dog sick and WORKS!! i used one of those bitter sprays and my pup chewed the bottled and ate no more then a dime sized dollop but he got so sick vomiting that i was certian he was going to die. anyways the recipe: water- pepeprmint extract (found in your grocery stores bakery aisle- a small perfume bottle washed throughly- fill the bottle halfway with water then add a few drops of the peppermint dont go crazy with the peppermint though that stuff is super strong an you dont need much taste it yourself to make sure its strong enough it should tingle in your mouth a bit but not burn. put a spray in your dogs mouth dont worry if he drools and makes funny noises trying to get it off his tounge dogs not only donot care for they taste but they also donot like the feeling it doesnt take very long for them to put two and two together peppermint=yuck! and the best part is should your dog decide to take a grab for the bottle and get a mouth full it will not harm him and also if you get it on your hands and forget to wash it off you wont be in for a nasty suprise when you touch your mouth!
My aunt told us that if they chew on shoes, fasten the shoe they chewed on to their collar for half a day. We broke our last dog of shoe chewing in one try.
I haven't found that foul tasting things work with any animal. If they are bored and in the habit they will just keep trying to chew despite the taste until they've worn it off the object. I think 2 things are needed here. First step up your discipline. A squirt bottle wouldn't phase my dogs in the least. The akita would give you a bad look and the shiba would love this new game. Obviously it's not enough for your dog either. If it were my dogs step 1 is "NO" *toss toy at dog*, step 2 if they repeat is "NO!" *cross the room as quickly as possible and get in the dog's space with strong enough body language to make them back up or lay down* and then try to get them to play with a toy, step 3 if they try again redirection is given up and it's "NO!" *grab dog by the scruff and pull or shove it on it's side and hold it there for a few seconds* and then release but maintain forceful body language between the dog and the object until they back away from it, often I can then back up to step 2 and just maintain a look or body language that tells them to back off until they realize I'm not going to ignore them, step 4 if all else fails *attach dog to a leash, tie the leash to a body part, and physically redirect the dog every time they so much as look at something wrong*. My akita spent the first month of puppy hood tied to me during all waking hours. I knew exactly where she was and she could not get out of sight so if she rolled over and grabbed my chair I could see it out of the corner of my eye and immediately stop her. If your dog runs away with things then it needs a leash or checkline so you can physically restrain it and make it known that you will not allow such behavior. Right now she's got control cause she knows she can get out of reach or that you will get distracted and not notice her on the other side of the room. Get her on a leash or a light clothesline for more space and reel her in if she's causing trouble. Never put yourself in a position where you can't back up a command. An electronic collar can work and I have used one on my akita but it's so easy to use them wrong that they are best kept in the hands of experienced trainers or those with an experienced trainer helping them. Second you need better toys/chewies. My akita finds non edible toys boring. She will not chew on them. She requires edible objects daily to keep her chewing desire under control. Dogs are designed to chew apart bone not inhale kibble and lay around the rest of the time. A good frozen raw bone will solve most chewing issues. A lot of grocery stores now are carrying dog bones. If you have a problem with raw bones you can freeze other things. We take natural balance rolls, slice them, and freeze but they don't take long to destroy so it doesn't always keep them content. There are also a million and one recipes out there for kong toys. I've stuffed kongs with raw hamburger, venison, boiled chicken, natural balance roll, peanut butter, satin balls, etc... and after they get the hang of it freeze it and it will last hours if not all day. There are fruit/veggie recipes out there but mine won't touch anything that is not meat. Peanut butter is pushing it and often gets turned down by my akita. You can boil the meat if you don't want to give it raw. Mine also like the edible bones by nylabones, Healthy Edibles, and the feed stores often have packs of dried beef parts with round liver chunks, trachea(my akita loves dried trachea), hooves (mine mostly ignore these), tendons... Then there are things like bully sticks from 1 foot to 3' long. Mine will spend weeks on a good quality bully stick. They won't touch the ones from the pet stores though. I have to get them from the dog bakery. Every dog is an individual and there are tons of different kinds of chewies out there to try. There has to be something that is more interesting than furniture.
Thanks for the replies. I do have a Kong for my dog but she won't touch it even if it has treats in it. Don't know why she won't. Most of the time she is in our room with the door shut and items picked up except for toys. After picking up everything and removing stuff off our tv stand she started going after the furniture. She chewed on the dresser, tried to chew on the other dressers, the corner of the mattress and box springs, metal and glass tv stand, some boxes we put stuff in that was on the tv stand to keep her from chewing them, and some cords. I did manage to tape the cords down so she doesn't mess with them to much. Had no way to hide them or put them in a pvc without causing a tripping hazard. I've been putting her outside in a fenced in area more to get her out of the house and she likes to sit around watching everything and listen to the birds. She does have toys out there and loves being out there for a couple hours. Then my husband takes her for a walk later to run off some more of her energy but she is still hyper when she comes back after a 2-4 mile walk. I have been tying a leash to the end of something so if I need to go to the bathroom I can hook her there for a few minutes till I come back which helps some. One reason I wanted this breed was for the low maintence exercise and laziness. Only thing I noticed similar from what I've read about the breed is the snoring, farting, and stubborness. Hopefully she calms down more as she gets older. I'll look for the peppermint extract the next time I'm in the store. I do have a question about the peppermint, would that work on a cow? Reason why I'm asking is my FIL has 4 adult cows that keep sucking each other and one can even drink her own milk on one side. He is thinking of getting rid of them since they are eating his profits and can't be put out to pasture with the other milkers. He is an organic farmer so I don't know if that would work or not but figured I'd ask.
Quote:alot of people have that misconception that bully breeds are lazy dogs when most are in fact incredably athletic they had to be all that muscle mass had to be put to use lol! as far as for cows i really have NO idea lol ive traine dogs not cows lol but hey why not give it a shot youll know just squirt a bit in there mouths if they act like they dont like it it should work
Sometimes, until a dog gets trained, you just have to control them physically. It's hard to deal with a defiant, stubborn dog. Teaching them what you don't want them to chew is one thing, teaching them that they should respect that is another. A more submissive dog just needs to learn what you don't want them to chew and be given an alternative. Are you doing obedience work every day? More than once a day? I would. I do. It reinforces you giving them a command and the dog obeying it, so it's more automatic and feels natural to do it. Plus, it's in a controlled setting, where it's easy to get compliance. In addition to things like "sit" "down" "stay" "heel", etc. I teach "leave it" for things they are sniffing or thinking about messing with, that I want them to leave alone. I also teach "drop it" for things they have in their mouth that they should spit out. I also teach "go get a toy" as a command, to redirect them. It seems to work better to teach them things to actively do, than it does to just tell them, "no." Lots of exercise is great. Having things to chew on or play with is great. Until the dog gets trained, though, you just have to physically control the dog. When you aren't actively watching and training, it's best to have the dog either leashed to you or crated. The whole thing is time consuming and a hassle. Unfortunately, that's just part of raising a dog. Some dogs are easier, some dogs are harder. Even within the same breed. A dog that's a year old is past the young puppy stage, but right in the middle of adolescence. So, you just have to keep working at raising and training them. It's the age when most dogs are given up, so don't feel bad if you feel like your dog is driving you nuts or it's a lot of work right now. I have two dogs at the moment. Same breed. Both adopted untrained, half grown. One was a breeze, almost no effort. One has been a nightmare for several months. He's not the only dog I've had to work really hard on, but I can honestly say he is the worst dog I've ever had to train! Still, he is making progress, every month that goes by. Someday, he is going to be a really great dog. I've begun to see a glimmer of who he's going to be someday and he is amazing. I still have a lot of work to do and so does he. I think of the next 6 months to a year as an investment in a long, happy life together. There are days, though...
I would keep a leash tied to your waist or belt and where you goes, she goes. Period. That way you can keep her under your direct supervision at all times. Isolating her is not going to help with the problem and will actually increase her anxiety and cause her to chew more. She would be best crated or tied to you. You need to have complete control of her actions, and she needs to realize this. You might have to do this for a long time - like months. She should be crated or tied to you. I have a friend whose dog died from swallowing a sock. The dog's bowel became obstructed by the sock, and the dog died. It is in your and your dog's best interest to keep her under your direct supervision - I mean your eyes on her or within 6-8 ft of her - if you don't want her to hurt herself or destroy your house. She has learned she can run away from you and swallow stuff you don't want her to have in her mouth. Tieing her to you or crating her will stop all these undesirable behaviors simply because you'll be right there and she can't get away. It will also be very bonding for her and it sounds like that might be a good thing.
