She ate the wall!?

[daionara]

In the time it took me to go to the bathroom and tinkle, Molly took a quarter sized chunk of drywall. She didn't actually eat it, it was all over the floor. She just chewed it. She's trying to chew the floor trim too. Does that "Bitter Apple" spray stuff work? Holy smokes. I live in an apartment, she cannot be eating the walls LOL

I will be glad when she is a bit bigger, right now she can slip between the vertical bars of the baby gates I have on all the doorways. Hence the reason she chewed the wall, she got out of the bathroom. Gonna have to leash her to me I guess.

[mimimomo]

How old is she? She can still be teething...Princess made a huge hole on our too when she was about 7 months old.

She was already spayed & had her retaining baby teeth pulled. Vet said it could also be boredom, separation anxiety...so I gave them a lot of chews (bully sticks, himalayan chews, antlers), always supervised. When I wasn't home, I connected 2 ex-pens together & made a huge space for them to stay in. That way, Princess couldn't get to any walls or moldings on the baseboards.

She eventually outgrew it. Bitter apple doesn't work on porous material, so you'll need to reapply often & some dogs actually like it!

[My lil friend]

There is a putty that you can purchase at Home Depot or Lowes in the paint department that you can fill the hole in with. Both of these places can match paint amost exactly or ask the maintance man for a jar of the paint that was used in your apartment if you haven't been there very long.
There is also a wood filler made that can be used to fix some wall trim and then painted over.
It does sound like she is teething. I take mine into the bathroom with me when they are this small.

[daionara]

She's only 12 weeks old so yeah I figure it's just the puppy teething thing. And I DID take her to the bathroom with me. She just slipped right through the vertical bars on the baby gate in the doorway. I didn't close the bathroom door. I don't mind needing to reapply the bitter apple stuff, just wondered if it was worth getting some. I see bitter cherry too.

Silly puppy. She just started this chewing thing yesterday. Ah well, Milo (my 2 year old dachshund) went through the same phase. I'll call the maintenance guy and have him fix the wall. I have custom painted walls but I also have the paint here so once the wall is fixed, I can paint it.

[sganow]

I have a maltese (Lilly) that used to eat holes in the drywall behind the couch. She finally outgrew it. About all you can do is patch the holes and touch up the paint. When the dogs would chew wood, I put cayenne pepper on it. The bitter spray seems to be working for my youngest dog. Never tried it until recently because she likes to chew the woodwork.

[Jkpal]

If she's teething, put a little water in the bottom of a bowl, freeze; she'll have a little disk to play with(?) and hopefully chomp on...the ice helps alleviate some of the discomfort of teething. Also, if you 'catch' her chewing on something inappropriate, tell her no, then immediately give her what she should chew on and get excited for her to demolish that! You two will figure it out together, I'm sure. Enjoy that tiny baby!

[Lookingforone]

Bitter apple spray really does work for my little guy. They just need one taste of it and won't go near anything that's sprayed with it after that.
Just watch and see if she eats other weird things like dirt.
My friends (human) daughter started licking the walls and eating dirt as a baby and they found out she was severely anemic.

[matese]

2 of my past puppies hated the bitter apple and 2 of them liked the taste, instead of chewing my coffee table the licked off the finish, go figure!!!! this was years back.

[Magnus]

You should see my house... trims, cabinet corners, etc... LOL

[intilis]

My guys hate the taste of bitter apple. I used it when they chewed as " teens".

[sandy simpson]

I had a poodle that chewed the stucco off the bedroom wall. I now have a big piece of wood across that spot so my Yorkies do not get into that. All for the love of a dog, I can fix that wall. What is another little chew mark? I have so much love from my Yorkies I can just overlook that little mess.

[dawn27]

My gal Ruby did that and a pup we had many year before too. He did a lot worse damage that Ruby could ever had done.


There are just like babies, when they are teething it hurts and they do anything to get those teeth out. Make sure your pup has lot of hard and soft type toys and chews to help the process along and save your walls. I use raw hide or pig hooves for teething. Just keep an eye on them when chewing the raw hide and when you see that they have gnawed it into smaller pieces its best to take it away to prevent choking.

[lucky70]

I guess bitter apple doesn't work for all dogs. Mine still ate their beds!

[intilis]

Originally Posted by lucky70

I guess bitter apple doesn't work for all dogs. Mine still ate their beds!

Wow, I guess they really liked them lol!

[docmartin]

Crystal became an excavator when she was about 10 months old and my wife was away for 3 weeks on her annual trip back home. I believe it was stress related. She'd only been with us 5 months then and it mainly happened when I too had to leave her, perhaps for only an hour but I think she got perplexed as we are both retired and she does get constant company. A combination of the spray and lots of fuss and reassurance seemed to work. Ocassionally she has spasmodic tendencies for wall licking. This variant is less destructive and seems to be an attempt to gather nutrients from the paintwork, or add variance to the decoration? She's obviously been an architect in a previous incarnation and feels the need to keep her paw in...

Examples of her handywork appear below;