My dog eats everything that isn't food

Question

I've read other posts here on the topic of unwanted chewing behavior.

• How can I stop my dog from chewing on everything.
• How can I train my dog to stop eating everything?
• my dogs eats sandals and plastics

None of the above offer a solution to my dog's behavior.

I've talked with different vets and spent hours googling the subject. All the advise I receive doesn't seem to address the extreme nature of my problem. It's not something a few days of dog training can stop.

My dog is now 6 months old and his endless chewing, eating and swallowing of anything he finds will not stop. It is not a random behavior, but is a constant never stopping moving from one spot to another looking for something to chew.

He requires by the second monitoring when he's let out of his room. Can not be left alone anywhere in the house. Can not be allowed to walk around freely and can not be trusted.

He is also a nipper, biter and grabber of hands, legs and feet. He especially bites my two daughters constantly. He does not have to be in a hyper state to bite. He will calmly walk up to anyone and just grab you. The biting is worse if he is excited.

But it really is the constant eating of non-food items that is driving me nuts. If he can not find something on the floor he will climb, jump, claw open or rip apart anything until he finds something.

We've spent a lot of money on leashes, dog gates, crates, dog toys, dog treats and gave him unlimited dog food (which resulted in lots more dog poop without a change in behavior). We can close the gate to the front room which has now been taken over as the dog room. If we remove everything from this room, fill it with hundreds of dog toys, dog treats and dog food. He will still chew the dry wall, crown molding and door frames.

I work from home, and share my office space with the dog. He does not have separation anxiety, and he is very well crate train (he will sleep in his crate with the door open on his own).

I take him for walks, take him to the dog park to run off leash and let him play outside for hours. Nothing is working. As soon as he is back inside he starts scanning for something to eat. He does not just chew it. He completely eats it.

Crayons, pencils, paper, tissue, shoes, hats, gloves, beer cans, soda cans, eye glasses, computer keyboards and mouse, wires, extension cords, TV remote, kids toys, soup cans, markers, play doh, glue bottles, books, etc.. etc..

We can not keep moving things out of reach and still live in the same house.

He is a happy, goofy and playful puppy but his large size (80lbs) and tall height (he can reach anything on a high counter, table or shelve) makes this behavior extra destructive and stressful.

He's been to the vet and everything checks out just fine. We've had blood work done, poop/pee tests and have taken him to training classes for puppies. We've tried positive rewards, negative rewards and even gave a remote buzzer a try.

Is there any hope that this will ever stop?

Answer 1

Some animals are OCD for eating things and cannot be conditioned otherwise , a vet I work with has a cat like that who we've done multiple foreign body surgeries on.

First thing I would do is get pet insurance that will cover foreign body surgeries, they aren't cheap and with a dog like yours it will happen.

Secondly I suggest buying a basket muzzle, I've seen a few dogs that need to wear one at all times because they eat everything. We had to do this for a golden retriever that had 3 foreign body surgeries in a year, this poor dogs intestines can't handle much anymore. These types of muzzles don't tighten around the mouth like the fabric ones, it fits loosely enough to be comfortable yet will prevent him from eating things.

I know this doesn't fix the behavior but worth doing all the same, you can always call a few trainers to see what they have done as I'm not well versed in this type of training.