# HELP!! He chews my walls!



## wyoung2153

Titan is a year old 90 lb GSD. He loves nothing more than to chew my walls when I am not home. I'm not sure how to get him to stop doing this without restricting him to a kennel all day, 8 hrs, while I am at work. He chews the wood on my stairs and rips the wall paper of the walls. He has recently started chewing the dry wall after the wall paper is off. I've punished him, I've covered it up with something, I've sprayed this "OFF!!" spray on it that I got from a pet store. So far nothing works, and while I would love to just redo everything, I am renting in Germany and can't. The landlords are having a cow! Help please!!! :help:


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## heatherr

My pup - 10 months old, is in his crate for about 8 hours a day. We walk in the morning and again in the evening, plus other exercise.

Sometimes, like today, when i work from home, and on the weekends its less, but what can you do?


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## LaRen616

He needs to be crated.

What if he starts eating something else and he gets something stuck in his throat and chokes on it, what if he chews on something toxic and it kills him? For his safety and for the safety of your house, he needs to be in a crate when you are not home.

My GSD chewed the walls when I was gone for 4 hours. He is in his crate anywhere from 2-8 hours. He loves his crate.


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## Emoore

Crate him. Which is more cruel: keeping him in a kennel, or having him die from ingesting some poisonous or hazardous part of your house?


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## wyoung2153

Well sounds like so far crating him is my only option. I crated him for a while but with him being my first dog, I wasn't sure if that was wrong of me.. which I'm glad that it's not because life was much better that way, no chewed up house, no yelling or getting angry, and definitely no sick pup from ingesting something, which hasn't happened yet, thank goodness..


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## JustMeLeslie

I think even though you don't want to crate you should. I know there are other members here who crate for that long. I know you will worry that he is in the crate for too long, but you can't have him tearing your whole house apart either. Since he is older he can be in a crate for 8 hrs. and be just fine. If you absolutely don't want to do a crate then choose a room and double baby gate/close the door to keep him only in one room. Give him a kong with treats and frozen peanut butter in it, lots of chew toys. If you can leave a radio on or tv on for noise for him that sometimes helps. I would not recommend the radio/tv be in the same room with him if he is loose though. I think crating is your best option though.


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## cassadee7

I agree, crate him.


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## Elaine

Crate him. Some dogs can be safely left loose at an early age and some dogs can never be left loose and are crated through old age.


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## hunterisgreat

wyoung2153 said:


> Titan is a year old 90 lb GSD. He loves nothing more than to chew my walls when I am not home. I'm not sure how to get him to stop doing this without restricting him to a kennel all day, 8 hrs, while I am at work. He chews the wood on my stairs and rips the wall paper of the walls. He has recently started chewing the dry wall after the wall paper is off. I've punished him, I've covered it up with something, I've sprayed this "OFF!!" spray on it that I got from a pet store. So far nothing works, and while I would love to just redo everything, I am renting in Germany and can't. The landlords are having a cow! Help please!!! :help:


My female is 15 months. She is not allowed free roam. If she is not under supervision she is kenneled. So should yours. He can't handle freedom right now. My dogs can deal with 12 hours of kennel if required. If I know I'm going to have a >8 hour day the go with me but are confined to my FJ like this:








This way I can let them out at lunch. Of course this isn't possible for most people.

Punishing is just hurting your relationship. He doesn't have any clue why you are punishing him. If you're bent on not kenneling him, get some bitter apple spray, and soak a cotton ball with it. Put it in his mouth and hold his muzzle shut for 2-3 minutes. He will hate it. It will be unpleasant. It will imprint in his mind how nasty that taste is. Then you can just lightly spray whatever he is damaging or you don't want damaged. Without the imprinting the spray is mostly worthless. I have two dogs trained this way and neither has ever caused any damage in my house at all


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## wyoung2153

Awesome advice.. thank you everyone I really appreciate the speedy responses.


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## Emoore

hunterisgreat said:


> Put it in his mouth and hold his muzzle shut for 2-3 minutes.


With my luck he'd just swallow the cotton ball.


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## hunterisgreat

Also, my male has been free roam since slightly after 1 year old. He can handle it. My female isn't ready, but we test it occasionally... she has some separation anxiety issues which manifests itself as defecation, but we're working through this slowly and I expect to have it resolved before the year is out


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## hunterisgreat

Emoore said:


> With my luck he'd just swallow the cotton ball.


My female eat **** near anything, but she hated that cotten ball like you wouldn't believe. I don't think any dog will like it. Worst case scenario, its just cotton with the scent and some alcohol so its not a health concern.

Also, I'm not talking about putting it in the back of the mouth... just about between the first set of premolars


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## gsdraven

hunterisgreat said:


> If you're bent on not kenneling him, get some bitter apple spray, and soak a cotton ball with it. Put it in his mouth and hold his muzzle shut for 2-3 minutes. He will hate it.


A quick spray directly in the mouth will do the same thing without the hassle of trying to keep the cotton ball in their mouth or them swallowing it.


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## hunterisgreat

gsdraven said:


> A quick spray directly in the mouth will do the same thing without the hassle of trying to keep the cotton ball in their mouth or them swallowing it.


Its certainly possible for that to work with some dogs, but I just go the full way to minimize having to rework stuff later. For example, I tried that with the female but it didn't stick... I then tried the cotton but she got lose of me about a minute or so into it, and it still didn't stick... finally worked after I had her in a jiujitsu guard position for a full 3-4 minutes holding it in while she was blowing spit out the lips lol. She's a stubborn little thing


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## gsdraven

hunterisgreat said:


> Its certainly possible for that to work with some dogs, but I just go the full way to minimize having to rework stuff later. For example, I tried that with the female but it didn't stick... I then tried the cotton but she got lose of me about a minute or so into it, and it still didn't stick... finally worked after I had her in a jiujitsu guard position for a full 3-4 minutes holding it in while she was blowing spit out the lips lol. She's a stubborn little thing


I have to wonder if having to through all that is what finally made it work and not simply because it was on a cotton ball. Some dogs like the taste of the bitter apple spray so, no, it won't work on all dogs. Anyways back to the OP.

Crate him unless you can spray that stuff all over your walls  8 hours in a crate is something many of us do daily.


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## hunterisgreat

gsdraven said:


> I have to wonder if having to through all that is what finally made it work and not simply because it was on a cotton ball. Some dogs like the taste of the bitter apple spray so, no, it won't work on all dogs. Anyways back to the OP.
> 
> Crate him unless you can spray that stuff all over your walls  8 hours in a crate is something many of us do daily.


Well I can only speak about my own experiences, but we can certainly agree that prolonged negative experience is more memorable than a brief one


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## Whitedog404

Jeez Louise! Crate him before you're thrown out.


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## Stosh

I'd get up 45 mins early and exercise and train him--then he'll sleep for the first few hours or so. You might find someone who could let him out at lunchtime.


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## hunterisgreat

Stosh said:


> I'd get up 45 mins early and exercise and train him--then he'll sleep for the first few hours or so. You might find someone who could let him out at lunchtime.


Agreed.. tired dogs are better behaved dogs in all cases


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## WVGSD

*crating because of chewing walls*

In Germany, do you have access to toys such as a Kong? If so, you might want to purchase one and smear some peanut butter or cheez spread inside it and freeze it overnight. When you leave, give this to him in the crate so that he has something to occupy him. I also use the big smoked cow femur heads for dogs when my GSD is crated or kennelled. He is less anxious in the crate and/or kennel and does better.

Shannon


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## hunterisgreat

WVGSD said:


> In Germany, do you have access to toys such as a Kong? If so, you might want to purchase one and smear some peanut butter or cheez spread inside it and freeze it overnight. When you leave, give this to him in the crate so that he has something to occupy him. I also use the big smoked cow femur heads for dogs when my GSD is crated or kennelled. He is less anxious in the crate and/or kennel and does better.
> 
> Shannon


Make sure you know how the dog does with the bone before doing so. My male is ok, but my female tries to swallow bigger hunks than I'm comfortable with.

Also, they make nursing bitch pheromone emitters that calm and sooth a dog, particularly young dogs. I have them. They seem to work (in the second month)... no issues have happened since I started


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## jakeandrenee

WVGSD said:


> In Germany, do you have access to toys such as a Kong? If so, you might want to purchase one and smear some peanut butter or cheez spread inside it and freeze it overnight. When you leave, give this to him in the crate so that he has something to occupy him. I also use the big smoked cow femur heads for dogs when my GSD is crated or kennelled. He is less anxious in the crate and/or kennel and does better.
> 
> Shannon


I agree with the Kong but I don't think you should ever give a dog cooked/smoked bones.....and certainly wouldn't unsupervised because smoked bones splinter and become a serious choking hazard. JMHO


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## EMarie59

I am with everyone else. I have talked about our Labrador Duchess (R.I.P) and how she was probably kin to the dog in Marley and Me due to the stuff she got in to.
Eating walls was one of them.
The only way was crating her and make sure the teeth can't fit through the bars where the walls can still be gnawed on.
We have to save dogs from themselves.


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## Ucdcrush

I have found a strong connection between "not enough exercise" and chewed up things.. walls, molding, trim, doors, trees. Crating is definitely the safer option but if you want to try letting him run free in the house again, be sure to exercise the heck out of him first.

If you don't do this already: put a dog backpack on him, and work your way up to 10-15+ lbs in there, and walk him for 30+ minutes to wear him down some before you leave.

My daily routine is to walk the dogs 35-45 minutes in the morning, wearing their backpacks (12 lbs for my 65 lb dog and ~17 lbs for my 90 lb dog) and that seems to minimize excess chewing. Now usually the worst thing I find is some yard digging and their beds moved around


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