Shop Dog Question?

larry merlau

Member
Messages
18,741
Location
Delton, Michigan
The new dog seems to want to chew up some scraps of wood flavor doesnt seem to matter.. yes i feed him 3 cups of food a day and water also.. he hasnt seemed to have trouble with being clogged up both orifices work fine:) so do any of your shop dogs eat wood as well? or is this new guy just another freak of my luck coming out:)
 
My one dog does it.. I think he thinks they're chips - which technically I guess they are "Mmmm look you made chiipps!" The same dog has also been known to eat pieces of drywall and concrete board if given half a chance so his palette isn't perhaps the most refined.

There is also the "why would you be spending time on it if it wasn't food" question I'm pretty sure is somehow in their minds.
 
My one dog does it.. I think he thinks they're chips - which technically I guess they are "Mmmm look you made chiipps!" The same dog has also been known to eat pieces of drywall and concrete board if given half a chance so his palette isn't perhaps the most refined.

There is also the "why would you be spending time on it if it wasn't food" question I'm pretty sure is somehow in their minds.

hadnt thought of it like that ryan:) and ted he did show us a new trait last night he is a good mouser to,, the daughter and her family is here and they spotted a mouse in there room so we brought out the cat and the dog and the dog beat the cat to it.. didnt eat it just killed it and dropped in frnt of me.. good doggie:)
 
Izzy - see my avatar - loves to chew on scrap pieces of wood. Hasn't ever seemed to hurt her. She prefers cherry, btw. She also love browsing through the plane shavings on the floor - again, cherry preferred, but poplar, pine, and maple are acceptable.
 
I'm not an expert but some dogs do chew wood or whatever they get hold to release tension. Specially those dog breeds who are highly energetic and don't get enough activity, it is not a matter wether they are outside or not, it is a matter of burning energy and getting tired enough.

I would be concerned of having some splints on his gums or even in his stomach though. I would buy him one of those rawhide bones or get a leg bone on the butcher.

But again, I'm no expert neither a vet.
 
I'm not an expert but some dogs do chew wood or whatever they get hold to release tension. ...

Not just dogs. The tiny kitten that showed up on our doorstep a few months ago has grown to be almost the size of our two-year-old female cat. LOML put a few cat toys in the garage for him, but he prefers to bring a stick in from the yard to chew and play with!
 
hadnt thought of it like that ryan:) and ted he did show us a new trait last night he is a good mouser to,, the daughter and her family is here and they spotted a mouse in there room so we brought out the cat and the dog and the dog beat the cat to it.. didnt eat it just killed it and dropped in frnt of me.. good doggie:)

Warning, tails of mice smeared in peanut butter being consumed entire ahead. If such a thing bothers you skip this one and make a PB&J instead.

Our current dogs have never been mousers and I suspect they never will be. Great at hunting rabbits, quail, and what have you but for some reason mice are just off limits.

Quite a few years back when they were still young and spry I was cleaning out the garage and came upon a next of juvenile mice, just past the crawling stage and a bit before the running stage. Aha I think to myself here is a training exercise waiting to be had. So I collect the mice in a 5 gallon bucket, call the dogs and head out to the wide area in the drive way.

First dog up comes over, picks up the mouse verrrrry carefully and takes him over to the lawn where he sets him down then bumps him with his nose with a "get along there little buddy" sort of look. The other one wouldn't even get close but sort of just stared at them with big eyes.

So I think to myself "what do dogs love"? Well the solution immediately was obvious "peanut butter"; dogs love peanut butter. So I head into the house and grab a saucer with a bit of peanut butter on it and back out to the yard.

Back to the first dog, we have one mouse that having been liberally smeared with peanut butter is pinned down and oh so gently and carefully licked clean. Followed by a repeat of the trip to the lawn and the gently send off. This isn't working out at all.

The second dog "took the bate" as it were (he's the wood chip eater, no surprise here) and gulp gulp gulp down went the mouse with the peanut butter topping. There was a long pause.. realization.. the "how could you!" stare. He wouldn't take anything with peanut butter on it for the next six months without carefully checking to see if there was a mouse hidden underneath it.

I don't think these dogs will ever be mousers.
 
I know CCA has been (or at least is) being phased out of pressure treated wood. I'd be careful about any old pieces you may use in a project. Starbuck and Logan love to chew/eat fallen tree branch pieces outside and misc. pieces off of our firewood we have in the house. Never seems to have hurt them. Of course with Starbuck, it's hard to tell if she's been damaged :rofl:
 
Neither of my dogs will even come in the shop if I have a machine running... Maggie the female will come in and visit with any visitor I have, but if I turn on anything, it's out the door. She's about 7 or 8 and doesn't chew much anymore... she does collect shoes and toys from around the neighborhood... plus I think all the neighbors feed her.. she's constantly bringing home pizza and biscuits, which she may or may not eat... if she catches a squirrel, she'll gnaw on that, but I think she's about sworn off skunks.... she used to bring them home and leave them in the yard.

The little dog stays in the house most of the time, except when he sees a squirrel through the window... he'll chase it, but has never caught one. He also stays away from Maggie's prizes... she doesn't like to share. He's the beggar and wants to eat off the table... it's pathetic to listen to him whine and beg at the dinner table...'course we feed him, so it's our fault. He only wants to chew on a bone when he's sitting in my lap... I'm kind of leery about that as he gets awfully close to things I'd rather he not chew on... generally make sure they're tucked away well.
 
When I had business premises my guard dog used to eat concrete blocks, he never had any problems at all.
One morning when I opened up, he was waiting for his breakfast by the door as usual, I went to get it from the office and he had ripped open 12 tins of dog food and eaten the lot and still wanted breakfast lol.
 
Hi Larry, he was a sort of Labrador but huge, I had him from a police pound, I found that he hated all men but me lol.
An elderly lady found him as a stray, she took him to the police station on the bus, this was in the days when they had conductors to collect the money.
When the conductor put his hand out to take her money the dog had him, she was thrown off the bus.
This poor old soul had to walk 2 miles to the police station, on arriving there she told her story to the officer, he put his arm around her an said come for a cup of tea, the dog got him on the floor.
One day he escaped, I lost a days work looking for him, then in the evening a little lad walked him up the road on a piece of string, turned out he loved women and children.
He was a great dog, not afraid of anything, he was attacked by 2 german shepherds one day while he was on the chain, I let him out the next morning and he raced over to the house and really beat them up pretty bad before I could get to him, they never tried it again lol.
 
Top