# chewing on metal bowls and crate wires



## Nancy Jocoy

Beau has taken to chewing on his food bowl and his crate wires. He is 15 weeks old. 

Any suggestions to break this. I can take the bowl away but then he will lay there and try to gnaw on the crate. Right now I am correcting it but I cant watch him all the time.

He gets plenty of training and activity and I do have appropriate things to chew on in his crate (stuffed kongs, bones, etc.)

Not a behavior I want to encourage.


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## Joby Becker

to some dogs a bowl is another toy...

maybe try a different size or style of crate...just thinking out loud.

if he is young, he might grow out of his fascination with the bowls, but he might not...


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## Nancy Jocoy

The bowl I can just take out. I am going to pick up some more chew things today while I am out and see if that will help....I could try a vari-kennel but another aluminum crate would break the bank right now......hoping it is just teething nonsense and that I don't have a crate destroyer.


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## Geoff Empey

My older dog damaged her teeth doing crap like this. With my new pup it was a simple solution Kongs, Kongs, Kongs, Kongs and Kongs. Kongs with peanut butter Kongs stuff with treats, Frozen Kongs etc etc. 

Plus I do not leave bowls or water dishes in the crate. If you water the dog every time you potty break the pup any ways, there really isn't a reason for the pup to have water in the crate IMO. Or if it is RAW fed. 

Any pup is going to chew on something and you can't watch the the pup 24 hours a day. So really why stress yourself out over it, let it chew something it won't hurt itself on. Get it out of that junky wire crate too! But then it may still chew on the door. 

Having access to Kongs in the crate didn't phase any of my pups drive for a toy during training either I can still use those same type of kongs for retrieve games, hunt drive building any of the rewards that his training requires. FWIW I still use the same Kongs he gnaws on in his crate for all phases of his training. 

Here is an example of him jumping 4m on the FR long jump being rewarded with a Red medium Kong. (you can see it in the air) I do like the Black or Blue Kongs but they are harder to see in the truck when it is dark. So I use the Red in training even though they don't last as long. I have been using day-glo rope on the other darker colour Kongs now too as the Red ones get worn.


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## Nancy Jocoy

Not worried about the drive--seems to have it in spades--the kongs only get so much mileage before he gets bored with them; he has those stuffed with puppy crack, peanut butter etc.

He gets a good session of retrieving in the am, 40 minute offlead wood lunch walk, retreiving basic ob in the evening and mid morning and mid afternoon breaks for beginning scentwork, tug etc.


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## vicki dickey

My little female did the crate chewing thing and she got her jaw caught in the wires-thank god I was home and got her out safely. BUT this caused an injury to her permanent teeth that had not come in yet. The vet school at Columbia, MO did dentistry work on her once the permanent teeth came in and boy did her canine tooth on that side come in weird. It was the first and only time I ever crated a puppy or dog. She was to be my conformation dog. The vet school offered me a letter that would state the reason her teeth were messed up but I just made her an OB dog instead. 
This also brings to mind the use of collars. My dogs never wear a collar unless I am working with them. Dogs that play together can get jaws caught in another dogs collar while playing. I had this happen and again I was lucky to be home. With one dogs lower jaw through the collar the canine teeth held the jaw in and made the collar so tight I could not get the release to work. One dog was nearly choking to death because the other was struggling to free himself. No one got hurt and no one ever wears a collar in my home unless they are on a lead going somewhere or being worked. I know this is not an isolated incident as I have since read of others not so lucky in the outcome.


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## Geoff Empey

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Not worried about the drive--seems to have it in spades--the kongs only get so much mileage before he gets bored with them; he has those stuffed with puppy crack, peanut butter etc.


For me it isn't complicated. Just remove what he is OCDing over and try to redirect this OCD on to a Kong or (maybe) a sturdy puzzle treat dispenser. If the kong is the only thing in a crate that he can chew on he will chew on it, to bad for him if he gets bored with it that's all he gets!! :wink: The price of vet dentistry would be a good motivator for me to find a solution. Even if you need to move him into a better chew proof crate, that is cheaper than the long term vet dentist bills with the added future lost training opportunities and the effects on his long term health. YMMV.


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## Peter Cavallaro

Nancy have u tried just large whole rec. bones or did i miss that.


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## Thomas Jones

Good luck. I'll post a pic of my crate later on. Maybe you won't have it as bad as I did lol


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## Ricardo Ashton

It's pretty high probability that he may be teething. Give him about two-three weeks with some cold maleable chews & see if it stops. And make sure you collect the teeth if you can. Some pups have a tendency to swallow teeth after they fall out and thats pretty dangerous, even the roots of those baby teeth can be really sharp. A perforated bowel is something you'd want to avoid if at all possible.


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## Nancy Jocoy

Thanks you all
Today was a busy puppy day with a trip to a friends farm, cadaver training my other dog (and some imprinting for Beau) and climbing on surfaces and hearing farm equipment

Followed by a trip to petsmart where I got some stuffable kongs (different shapes), a kong treat dispensir, then to another store where we got a deer antler (at the advice of my daughter) which he is enjoying very much right now and a cooked bone (well I don't like those but at his age he is not crushing anything) 

Then onto the butcher shop where they gave me a free big joint bone of some sort

So if I mix it up (not all at once) maybe we can get through teething and bypass the crate chewing. No I know how much dental work costs - one dog had a root canal and the other knocked out a bunch of teeth on a tree....

.If I have to spring for a different crate I will....I spent good money on aluminimun dog boxes for the truck after having a paw go through the gap under the door on a wire crate. That was fun. FIgure that would have been a real vet bill - fortunately the dog let us extricate him without biting anyone.


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## Bob Scott

If I don't pick up both the dog's stainless food bowls Thunder makes the rims look like a pie crust.


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## Tammy St. Louis

what kind of crate do you have, i would switch to a vari kennel if you are using a wire crate


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## Nicole Stark

This might sound like a stupid question but is this behavior fairly common? I expected some degree of this with my DS pup but from day one when she went into her crate she settled in and was/is quiet as a mouse. She does have a small bowl for water clipped onto the door but hasn't ever messed with it.


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