Dogs chews his tail

[pappcam]

My dog has lately got into the habit of chasing/chewing his tail. I try to keep him busy so he leaves it alone but I can't be around 24/7 to make sure. The trouble is that he actually chews the fur off the tip of his tail. He must be doing this when he's in his kennel when we're out or at night. He's ten months old so I hope he grows out of it, but I've read that this could turn into compulsive behaviour for my boy.

 

I bought some spray that's supposed to stop this behaviour but to no avail. Does anyone know of a certain substance that I could use that's safe for my dog and I.

[Riley-dog]

habenero pepper sauce. a very very very small amount. Only add more if necessary. It's far hotter than jalapeno based sauces.

[Barb Scott]

We had Chips & Cheese tonight from the local Mexican Restaurant and I forgot to tell them to leave off the jalopenos. My husband picked them off his dinner and Quest our BC inhaled them!

Our baby BC Kye quit chewing her tail hair after she started pheno for her seizures. (She was our only BC who ever chewed her tail; she didn't start chewing it until she developed a reaction to a bug/spider bite last June.)

Barb s

[juliepoudrier]

I have an obsessive dog who will very occasionally give himself lick granulomas on his legs. Last time I was away for a day at a job interview and came home to find a quarter-sized hairless spot on one front foot. The *only* way I could get him to leave it alone was to wrap it, and it stayed wrapped (with frequent banadage changes since he wears them out by obsessively running in circles) for nearly a month while the spot healed and hair grew back. My point is that sometimes you need a phsyical barrier (like a bandage) to stop the licking/chewing.

 

As for pepper sauces and the like, they might be useful intact skin/hair, but I wouldn't put anything like that on an area that had been chewed/licked raw as I imagine it would be quite painful/irritating to the dog and so could just exacerbate the chewing problem.

 

Have you tried redirecting his attention--that is, giving him a frozen stuffed kong or something similar to occupy his mind and his mouth while you're away?

 

J.

[2 Devils]

If this is a new obsession, you may want to make sure there is not something wrong with the tail. I knew a dog that chewed its tails and we all thougt it was obsession. Months later, they took the dog to the vet and learned that the dog probably had a tingly sensation from some injury. They ended up having to cut the tail off since the dog was causing serious damage to it.

[border_collie_crazy]

ya know Shadow did this for the longest time first we thought something was wronge with her tail, but apperntly it was stress, she had almost no hair on her tail left when she went to her new home, she was stressed for a while there too and kept doing it but she has been there 1 year now and she has stopped entirly and she is getting a nice fluffy tail again.