Chewing on Crate

[Bula's Lady]

So last night playing with Bula I noticed she has rubbed her lip and nose a little raw. We went out to dinner last night and when I put her in her crate she started biting the side of it - toward Kramer. I am waiting to get home from work today to examine the crate a little more but it looks like she is starting to get the coating off - getting at the metal.

 

Do ya think this is just a behavior from being in the crate - they are not crated long at all - maybe 1-2 hours at a time and overnight.

 

Or? Do dogs needs salts like horses?

 

She has been chewing a lot of wood - since we are staking it in the house now. I tell her to leave it because I don't like her eating wood shards.

 

Just wondering if anyone elses dogs do this?

[Guest SweetJordan]

My first dog chewed up part of the tray in her crate. She was left for the equivalent of a work day twice a week, and was w/ me most of the time outside of that. Though that may have been in part because she would open her crate and let herself out. When I put a lock on it I don't think she liked that. But she wasn't ready to be lose all the time at that point so it was for her own good. I don't think she had separation anxiety, it was more of wanting to patrol the house when I was gone. Perhaps some one can offer suggestions on how to stop her from chewing on the actually crate. A dog dentist told me that he sees a lot of dogs who break their teeth like that.

As far as the chewing on wood I grew up mostly w/ retriever mixes(even the herding mutt we had, had retriever in him). Anyway they all loved sticks. And w/ my lab I can't put mulch in the yard because he will try to eat it-much like he did when I tried it. Needless to say I got rid of it for safety reasons. He still loves his sticks though and I have to be careful that he doesn't eat them. But he has never tried to eat wood in the house except for the time when he was a puppy and took his nana's ornament from the holy land off the tree and chewed it up.

Riley(BC) doesn't seem very interested in sticks or any other wood. She would much rather chew on a bone or chew up a toy.

[Lenajo]

Some dogs just have to try these things. I coat the area they want to bother with a thick layer of soap and that usually puts a stop to it.