Wall Chewing.

[Ivanhoe]

Toby is our second Border Collie. We eventually successfully raised our first, Eazi, who sadly died at 14.5 years of age two months ago. We learnt a lot about the unique qualities and problems of BC's, but there is so much to learn. Toby is now 7 months old. We've had him since he was 4 months. We take him to behaviour classes every Sunday morning. He loves it and we are being trained well. My husband and I take turns in walking him every morning at 6am. We walk him 6 kilometres and incorporate training into that time. He also gets 15 minutes off leash in a park where he plays with other dogs. This takes about 1.5 hours. My husband works from home most of the day except when he goes out to meetings. We are training Toby to stay at home in the family room with his toys, chews, kongs etc for periods up to 3 hours. He has a play pen which we also use but as he jumps out of it, it is now more to put around the lounge to prevent him sleeping on that when we aren't there. Our two adult children also walk him when they are at home and he has a short 20 minute walk every night after dinner. He is not allowed the run of the house as our first border collie was, nor is he locked outside for hours. So, what is the problem? On Sunday afternoon he started eating one of our plaster walls. I sprayed the area with 50/50 mix of citronella oil and water which has always stopped him chewing wood. This didn't seem to work. We moved the child gate 6 inches to put the hole on the other side of the gate. This worked until today, Tuesday. He has now started eating the wall near his bed. He doesn't just scrape the plaster out. He is actually nibbling with his teeth and eating it. We haven't caught him in the act yet so can't tell him "no" or use our water spray if he doesn't stop after two "no's". I'm going to try tabasco sauce spray, but if this doesn't work am not sure what to do. He does this when alone in the downstairs area but someone is upstairs working. Does anyone have any ideas?

[t-time]

Sorry to say it but despite all your walking and toys, he is BORED The wall has become interesting because it "does" something when he bites at it and it tastes unusual - hours of fun What's even better is that YOU are now playing with the wall

Move him somewhere else away from a plaster wall. Try setting up an outdoor run of some description. At least there is more to look at. Can your OH have the dog closer to keep an eye on him? You could also try hiding food treats around the yard and then letting him go find things - hours of fun

Obedience will continue to help him and once he gets to a higher obedience level, he will be more likely to obey OH inside at home. If the only time he gets left alone is when you are all out or OH is upstairs then I would suggest the dog is experiencing some level of separation anxiety as well.

Crate training would be of benefit here, if only to have the dog safely contained in a place where he cannot destroy things when you are out and then somewhere that is "his" space when you are at home.

Hope these ideas help

[sas]

Yep, sounds like a bored pooch to me.

Can pup not go in the backyard with kongs/bones etc?

[PAX]

Try rubbing some Vicks vapour rub on the chewed wall as a deterent.

I agree with others he is bored and look into crate training.

[Ivanhoe]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. We're going to try more outside time, more time upstairs, vicks vapour rub, more kongs, basically more of everything. Good thing is we can always replaster the walls once we solve the problem. :D

[TigerJack]

My Kelpie girl and my whippet x staffy girl both did this too. Neither were inside during the day, they both did it whilst teething and for a few months after. These girls are several years different in ages so the plaster was just fixed from the first one when the second one started. I found fiddling with the holes just made them work harder at lots of little holes so it was easier in the long run to let them keep their one main chew spot and just fix it when they were done. It lasted about 4 months for both girls. I think they both liked the texture and the taste. Kelpie girl ringbarked the dining room table leg too.