[craigtaz]

We recently adopted a 6 month old German Shepherd mix pup. Man, I didn't what I was getting myself into!

The dog is chewing everything in sight. He is strictly an outdoor dog. We have bought him tons of chew toys and dog bones, but he still prefers to chew up landscape lighting and sprinkler wiring or anything else he can sink his teeth into. When I catch him chewing something he shouldn't I discourage him, but he just moves on to the next plastic or rubber thingy he finds. He just did some extensive damage to my motorhome wiring, so I need to prevent him from doing anymore destruction.

Will this chewing go away as he gets older? Is there anything else that I could be doing to train him not to chew on things that he might damage or injure himself with?

Help!

Craig

 

[skelaki]

1. He's bored out of his mind. GSDs (and that includes GSD mixes) need activities such as obedience training, agility, herding, trick training, etc. that exercise their brains. A bored GSD will find activities to do that you don't like (as you are finding out).

2. For his safety and your sanity you absolutely need to buy/build him an escape-proof dog run with a dog house.

3. Dogs, especially during the teething stages (one of which you're in now), chew. If you can't be outside to supervise the pup 110% you must confine him in a safe, puppy-proofed enclosure.

4. It would be better if he could be in the house at least a portion of the time. If you happen to be thinking (??) that he'll be a better watchdog or something if he's outside, that is not accurate. An outside dog, in the backyard, is not a deterent to a burglar coming in the front.

 

[craigtaz]

Will this chewing craze go away as he gets older?

 

[Trixie]

The chewing craze will only go away if you work with the dog. Skelaki gave a good list of things to do with your dog that will curb his desire to chew.

 

[Junior]

I feel for you as I too am going through this (he's like a monkey in a banana factory)

 

[Cesare Borgia]

I can't help but chuckle over your comment about correcting him and then him just moving onto the next thing and chewing it.

i went through that for a while with my dogs when they would swipe various things and hide them in their dog house, it's like i had to tell them no about every object in the house, they thought that just because they could not chew the first chair leg, it did NOT mean that they could not chew the OTHER chair leg, the different sides seemed to mean different things too, if the RIGHT side was off limits then no big deal, they always had the LEFT side to chew instead lmao.