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serious chew problem

20 9:00:07

Question
Thanks in advance for your time! Our 9-month-old Great Dane has recently begun chewing our door frame. She has now removed part of the frame and is chewing directly on the wall. We're hopeful that this is just a phase, but she can a lot of damage pretty quickly. She created the hole in the wall while I was in the shower. Previously, she has chewed our sheets, mattress, combs, and my husband's electric razor. However, generally, she is pretty good (we have figured out a way to blockade the bedding). We have already taken several steps to curb her destructive chewing, including exercising her every day, playing with her regularly, making sure she has plenty of chew toys to play with, and spraying a bitter apple solution on the door frame. We have another dog so she is never alone. We don't leave the two dogs home without us for very long periods of time, but we do have to leave her alone for a few hours every day. Currently, we are considering putting up a kick plate over the hole in the wall, which might work but only for that one area. Short of confining her to a crate, what other options do we have to protect our wall? Any suggestions at all would be appreciated.

Answer
Kelly,

At 9 months your puppy is beginning to reach adolescence and the chewing begins...having toys is a great help, however you don't want the dog to have access to all the toys all the time. You want to have three toys out at a time and rotate every 2 dogs...

You are doing the right thing by exercising everyday and making sure that she has enough playtime. When you are not home, I would crate her. There really is nothing else you can do until she grows out of the chewing phase other than crate her. I know that may people think this is mean, but in all honesty is it protection for the dogs against themselves. I have had several training clients who did not listen to me when I told them to crate their puppies and this was with disastrous results. One puppy got electrocuted and another one had to have surgery to get pieces of drywall removed from his intestine when it started blocking inside and causing an infection.

Unfortunately Danes have a tendency to chew on things other dogs would not chew on, like walls and crown molding. The best and safest way to get through this phase is to crate your dog while you are not home, and even when you are in the shower if you feel you cannot trust her for that short period of time without being watches.