Wall Chewing/Biting

[MATTHEW ZEITLER]

Hi, 

I have a 10-month-old German Shepherd. He has recently started chewing on the walls and cabinets in the kitchen. Once we got past the teething, he was really good and chewing on his bones/toys. But within the last month has regressed to his former behavior. 

We have tried correcting him when he does it and offer him bones and chew toys when he does it. He is not interested in any of those. We give him lick mats and filled Kong toys, but they only distract him for so long. He does not the chew the wall when we are not home, it is only when we are home it happens. We will train, play with him, and give him stimulating toys-but maybe it is not enough? 

He also has a strong tendency to bite my wife's feet/shoes. We will use "leave it" but he does not listen. We have trained him hard with the command and have used shoes with it as well, he listens when we do that. He does not attack my shoes or bothers me at all. My wife and I train him equally also. 

Any tips/suggestions would be great! 

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

Chewing regressions aren't unusual at this age. At the age of 10 months, your GSD is officially an adolescent and several physical changes take place during a dog's adolescent stage. The adult permanent teeth come in (move over puppy teeth!) and the dog likes exercising his jaws so with this comes a renewed interest in chewing. Think of it as a human teenager getting his wisdom teeth in, remember how nice it felt to chew gum?

Some call this the "second teething stage" which takes place between the 5th and 12th month, a time when your pup may be more destructive than ever now since he's blessed with stronger jaws.

Chewing the wall and kitchen cabinets may be caused by a mix of a strong urge to chew combined with some boredom. If we think about this, chewing is likely a problem because our dogs are kept indoors for a good part of the day with not much to do. If they were in the great outdoors, it's a no brainer, they would find handy things to chew on, perhaps a branch, a little twig. 

It could therefore happen that during idle times of the day, a dog happens to be sitting next to the wall, or kitchen cabinet and bored and with nothing else to do, they happen to casually lick the corner of the wall, and next thing you know, he's chewing on it. In this case, chewing on the drywall provides sensory reinforcement, in other words, it just feels good.  And when something feels good, dogs will want to experience it over and over. 

While many dogs chew when they're undergoing a second teething stage or out of boredom, sometimes the behavior may stem from something else such as anxiety.  If your dog is anxious about noises in general or scary events such as thunderstorms or construction workers drilling holes in an apartment nearby, he may experience intense anxiety and fear and may cope with it through chewing. 

Dogs who enjoy social interaction with their owners and feel socially deprived, may sometimes resort to all sorts of behaviors in hopes of getting their owners to interact with them. Sometimes, bored or socially deprived dogs will even try things that lead to negative attention (such as being scolded or pushed away) just for the sake of getting their owner to stop watching whatever they are doing (like watching television) and start interacting with them. This is often the case of dogs who are alone for a good part of the day and expect some attention when their owners come back from work.  So if chewing the wall gets your attention (and it certainly does!), this moment of brief attention, even if of the negative type may reinforce the wall-chewing behavior, which will lead to more wall chewing in the future just for the sake of attention. 

If your dog is chewing drywall, consider that dogs may find it particularly attractive because drywall contains gypsum which is a mineral conglomeration composed by a large amount of calcium sulfate. This makes drywall very similar to bone causing dogs to want to keep on chewing on it. In these cases, it may be worthy having the dog's calcium levels tested. Something to consider is that, because gypsum is made up of tiny crystals, these can be irritating to the lining of the dog's stomach, possibly leading to some vomiting and diarrhea.

With these potential causes in mind, here are several tips:

-Start With a Vet Visit 
A vet visit may be a good place to start just to ensure there's nothing going on in the health department. Once health issues have been ruled out, then it's time to roll up sleeves and try to work on the problem. 

-Tackle the Anxiety 
If your dog chews through drywall because he is anxious, you will need to identify his triggers and implement a systematic desensitization and counterconditioning program. Your dog may need calming aids along with behavior modification to tackle the anxiety whether it's due to noises or something else.

-Hire an Exterminator
This is the case if you suspect there may be critters in the wall.  Look for an exterminator using animal friendly-options and products that are safe to use around your dog. 

-More Exercise and Mental Stimulation 

Bored dogs, or dogs in need for attention, benefit from being provided with more exercise and mental enrichment (brain games, training, sniffing opportunities)

-Provide Sensory Enrichment
Provide several safe chew toys of different textures for sensory enrichment and don't forget to rotate them to keep a sense of novelty. Look for chew toys that offer treats inside so that it's a no-brainer for your dog to pick these in lieu of the wall or kitchen cabinets. Tip: to make a Kong last longer, freeze it with its contents in the freezer and offer it once frozen.

-Block the Wall /Kitchen Area 
Chewing dogs should be blocked from gaining access to the wall area when unsupervised and while the dog is trained to learn that other behaviors garner attention such as calmer, more desirable behaviors garner attention. You can do this by placing bulky furniture in front of the wall area/ erecting an exercise pen in front of it/ erecting a baby gate to prevent access to the kitchen. Consider that dogs are particularly drawn to areas that they have started to chew already as they enjoy "finishing up the job."

With the energy drained, the introduction of interactive toys, more exercise and mental stimulation, attention provided contingent on desirable behaviors take place, denied access to the problem areas when the dog cannot be supervises and until the dog is better trained, the wall should become less and less attractive over time.

Next, let's tackle the shoe/feet chewing behavior....

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

As with chewing the wall and kitchen cabinets, shoes can be perceived as great chewing items and the chewing can also stem from boredom and attention-seeking behavior. 

Shoes also have some extra layers of appeal.  For instance, shoes carry a lot of our scent which makes them particularly appealing to dogs. Also, since we walk in many places with our shoes, our footwear also carries a whole lot of scent that makes them even more attractive. It's like a buffet offering a smorgasbord of smells!

On top of scent, consider texture. Shoes are made of materials that may be appealing to dogs to chew on and those fabric shoe laces sure makes them fun to play with. If your wife's shoes are made of leather, consider that leather ranks high as a dog's favorite type of shoe to chew on because it smells good and tastes good since it's made of cattle hide. Chewing on leather is also rewarding on its own as it tends to become softer and tastier the more the dog chews on it. 

Fuzzy slippers can be greatly fun to chew too considering that they bring out a dog's ancestral need to chew on fluffy things and rip them apart as if they were treasured prey.

So shoes surely draw a dog's attention! Since dogs like to often lie close to our feet, it's just a matter of time that their sniffing turns into into mouthing, and then their mouthing turns into chewing, and next thing you know, our shoe is broken into pieces. 

Stopping a dog's shoe chewing habit is important considering that chewing on shoes is not the healthiest thing to do. If a dog ingests large parts such as parts of the rubber sole, the insoles or gel pads or pieces of leather, these can lead to a foreign body obstruction which can turn into a costly surgery. Shoelaces if ingested also risk becoming wrapped around the dog's intestines on their way through the gastrointestinal system and can cause serious damage,

With all these risks in mind, it therefore makes sense to want to find a way to stop a dog's chewing shoes habit for good. Here are several tips to stop show chewing. 

-Out of Sight out of Mind 

 If you don't want your dog to chew on shoes, the solution is easy: keep those shoes out of the way. At least until he is better trained and we are sure all his needs are being met and that secondary teething stage is over. 

-More exercise and mental stimulation

Shoes should become less tempting if the dog is given more exercise and mental stimulation through brain games, interactive toys and safe items he can chew on. Experiment with a variety of chew toys, specifically those made for larger dogs (like Black Kongs, Goughnuts, Topples)

-Keep Training Leave it and Drop it

If your dog is not responding to leave it, it can be because the shoes are perceived as too valuable or the trades aren't high-value enough. Go back to basis and start practicing with lower value items, and increase the value of trades as you go higher up the value of the items left/dropped. If your dog "leaves it" only to go back to the shoe within minutes, find a way to break the cycle such as by providing something long lasting that will keep the dog's mind off the shoes.

Asking for obedience cues like a sit , down, hand target when he keeps coming back towards the shoes, and tossing a treat across the room for complying can be a good way to drain some extra energy and keep the mind off the shoes for some time. 

How to retrieve a shoe

Caught your dog in the act? Instead of getting upset or chasing the dog around (which often leads only to a miserable keep away game), grab several high-value treats /or a dog cookie (keep them always handy on a tall shelf near the couch or in your pocket) and calmly trade the shoe for the treats/cookie. To be extra safe, just toss the treats/cookie the opposite way as you retrieve the shoe. 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Biting your wife's feet: this is little different from the shoes chewing and wall/kitchen cabinet chewing for the simple fact that feet are interactive. In other words, since most likely your wife moves her feet to prevent chewing (and because it hurts!) this is perceived by the dog as a fun game. Dogs like the interaction and attention. Movement triggers more biting and the more we resist by moving, the more a puppy will latch on and treat us as tug toys. 

In these cases, while we work on reducing the behavior, it may help to find ways to make the biting less painful/difficult so that we no longer provide interaction and the habit can reduce. Some dog owners have found it helpful to wear tall Wellington boots in the process. Many dogs lose interest when biting on tall rubber boots because they are difficult to grasp and also because when wearing tall boots we are less likely to get hurt and move and once again movement is what puppies are after.

Following are more tips:

-Turning into a Lamppost

This helps to make the rough nipping at the feet extra boring. When you are walking and you see your puppy approach, stop in your tracks and become boring like a tree. Movement triggers more biting and the more we resist by moving, the more a puppy will latch on and treat us as tug toys.

-Asking for a Replacement Behavior 

The replacement behavior needs to be one that have been trained prior to the point of a certain level of fluency. You have several options as to what replacement behaviors to use. They all offer the dog an opportunity to perform a behavior that is incompatible with biting. 

-Carrying a Treat Bag 

Teaching replacement behaviors requires you to carry a treat bag on you during the day so that you are a ready to redirect at a moment's notice when you walk around.  Kibble rather than treats can be used when concerned about extra calories or digestive upset.

-Training a Reliable Sit 

Train the dog to 'sit." You need to train sit prior in a low distraction setting and then progress to asking it when you are walking (remember to stop in your tracks as your pup approaches). As your dog approaches, say "sit" and then reward by tossing the kibble/treat the opposite way as you walk away. If your dog eats quickly and then catches on with you as you're walking away, stop walking and rinse and repeat the exercise of asking the sit. This works great because you are adding obedience training, giving the dog a workout and preventing her from rehearsing the troublesome behavior. Win-win!

-Training  Attention Heeling 

Train your dog to do some attention heeling (dog walking next to you looking into your eyes) inside the home (no leash needed). If he can stay so focused on your feet, he can eventually be taught to stay focused on your eyes. Every time he makes eye contact with you, you toss a treat across the room so that he gets a workout too. Now, with the short attention span of puppies, don't expect to get long sessions of attention heeling, but just a quick glance works. You can start by stopping in your tracks asking for attention and then add gradually motion (walking) as you progress.

-Offer Some Redirection

What to do in the meanwhile, prior to your dog learning the replacement behavior well? As you work on training a replacement behavior, you may wish to redirect him when he approaches and you stop walking to some toy such as a tug toy or a flirt pole to prevent rehearsal. You can also try tossing a ball the opposite direction.

-Wear the Best Attire 

To set up your puppy for success, avoid wearing shoes with shoe laces, long skirts and wide leg pants. If possible, during the training period, wear tall boots (like Wellington boots). Many puppies lose interest when biting on boots, but also when wearing tall boots, puppy owners are less likely to get hurt and move (and movement is what attracts pups).

-Train Some Bite Inhibition

Although you aim to stop a puppy from biting hands and feet, you don't want a puppy to stop all forms of mouthing altogether. Puppies need to learn how to inhibit their bite (put less pressure) before their jaws develop and they are able to inflict quite some serious damage. As tempting as it may feel to start rough-housing or wrestling with the puppy to teach this valuable lesson, it is best to refrain from doing so as this only teaches the pup to play rough. Instead, try using a tug-toy in lieu of your hands. Should your puppy ever miss and bite your hands, drop the toy and stop playing. 

Another option is to keep a treat in your closed hand and release only when the pup is gentle with his mouth. You can also work on getting your puppy to develop a soft mouth during quiet times by allowing gentle mouthing and providing positive feedback for using a soft mouth. It's important to practice during quiet times at first because if your pup can't control his bite when relaxed, you can't expect him to be able to when he's highly aroused. Make it crystal clear that no-biting behavior and licks get praise and continued attention while bites make you stop the interaction and even go away.

-Don't Forget to Keep That Brain Busy!

Last but not least, provide more training, mental stimulation and brain games (pick brain games that allow him to chase things and get rewards out of them like kibble out of a bottle or a Kong Wobbler) so that he should seek them more and more which can turn your hands and legs pretty boring after a while because he gets more out of these activities when he's bored.

Here is the more comprehensive guide for nippy pups with links: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/replacement-behaviors-to-stop-puppy-biting/

I hope this helps,

Happy Training!