dog chews door frame

Question
Our German shepherd chews on the door frame, why does she do this and how can we stop her? Thanks.

Answer
How old is she?  If she is anywhere between 8 months and 2 years old, she is exhibiting normal canine behavior.  They need to do a lot of hard chewing to set the secondary teeth into the jawbone.  Larger breeds tend to mature later.  If she is an adult, I would suspect boredom, or perhaps anxiety.  Training helps with that - but Shepherds, despite their size, can be better trained with positive methods than the old fashioned leash correction methods.  These are highly intelligent dogs, and do not need to be coerced - they love clicker training because it's fun for them to figure out how to make you click and give them a treat or a toy or a pat.
www.clickerlessons.com
Do the "attention" exercise first, then "come" - you will soon be able to easily divert her attention toward you, and use it to your advantage in many situations, not just the wood chewing.
Puppies that are crate trained early can be watched when free in the house, or crated when you can't watch them.  Also, providing hard chew objects, such as Kong toys, or marrow bones (raw) can fulfill the desire to chew with something appropriate.  Prevention of this behavior is more important and desirable than "correction", which is, in my opinion, unnecessary and unfair to the dog.  So, you should supervise, not chastise.  The key is to divert her attention the moment she starts to seek the door frame, and offer something better to chew on, or issue a cue like "come" and reward her with a tidbit when she gets to you (be sure you call her in an upbeat cheerful tone - you are not punishing, you are simply redirecting her to a more productive activity.
If your dog chews door frames when you leave the home, you may have the beginnings of separation anxiety, which is a hard thing to eradicate once it takes hold.  If that's what's happening, you should get a copy of Patricia McConnell's booklet, "I'll Be Home Soon" and follow her advice.
Good luck  - let me know how things work out.