How To Stop Dog Chewing Abs Cable?

[steffi]

So what is the appropriate way to train a dog to no longer chew at an ABS brake cable under a car? You'd think some duct tape could take care of this but is there anyway of correcting the dogs behaviour? A couple of days ago the dog chewed thru 7400 thb's worth of ABS cable and that night my wifes mother chained the dog to a pole thinking it would stop the dog from being under the car. Turned out to be a bad idea as the dog didn't like being chained to a pole and subseqently damaged a 10,000 thb plant pot trying to get free. Usually the dogs are treated well. Now the dog is wearing the cone shaped hat you see when dogs come out of the hospital to stop them biting at their stitches but this surely isn't a good long term solution?

[Wellyoudidask]

So what is the appropriate way to train a dog to no longer chew at an ABS brake cable under a car? You'd think some duct tape could take care of this but is there anyway of correcting the dogs behaviour? A couple of days ago the dog chewed thru 7400 thb's worth of ABS cable and that night my wifes mother chained the dog to a pole thinking it would stop the dog from being under the car. Turned out to be a bad idea as the dog didn't like being chained to a pole and subseqently damaged a 10,000 thb plant pot trying to get free. Usually the dogs are treated well. Now the dog is wearing the cone shaped hat you see when dogs come out of the hospital to stop them biting at their stitches but this surely isn't a good long term solution?

Extract his teeth ?

[chanchao]

A good beating.

If that doesn't help, run it over.

[Morty]

So what is the appropriate way to train a dog to no longer chew at an ABS brake cable under a car? You'd think some duct tape could take care of this but is there anyway of correcting the dogs behaviour? A couple of days ago the dog chewed thru 7400 thb's worth of ABS cable and that night my wifes mother chained the dog to a pole thinking it would stop the dog from being under the car. Turned out to be a bad idea as the dog didn't like being chained to a pole and subseqently damaged a 10,000 thb plant pot trying to get free. Usually the dogs are treated well. Now the dog is wearing the cone shaped hat you see when dogs come out of the hospital to stop them biting at their stitches but this surely isn't a good long term solution?

I don't know if you can get them in Thailand, but there is this collar with a battery pack and a remote, with this you basically give your dog a electric shock every time it's getting near the car, a couple of weeks of this will make the dog avoid the car forever. This is harmless to the dog, it's used in my home country to train hunting dogs not to attack sheep. This is high voltage, low amp. a little like the electric fences used for cattle.

good luck!

[soic]

So what is the appropriate way to train a dog to no longer chew at an ABS brake cable under a car? You'd think some duct tape could take care of this but is there anyway of correcting the dogs behaviour? A couple of days ago the dog chewed thru 7400 thb's worth of ABS cable and that night my wifes mother chained the dog to a pole thinking it would stop the dog from being under the car. Turned out to be a bad idea as the dog didn't like being chained to a pole and subseqently damaged a 10,000 thb plant pot trying to get free. Usually the dogs are treated well. Now the dog is wearing the cone shaped hat you see when dogs come out of the hospital to stop them biting at their stitches but this surely isn't a good long term solution?

Rub pepper oil all over the cable....wear gloves. Leave the dog with access to the cable and let it enjoy it. Once it gets that pepper oil in it's mouth a time or two... it will never do it again. Pepper oil works wonders... just keep it out of our eyes.

[WaiWai]

Call in "The Dog Whisperer".

Is the dog being walked daily ?

Sounds like boredom & frustration to me.

[ronw]

feed the beast!

[engrin]

I agree with Soic. The bad taste method works! Our dog used to chew our wood coffee table. We tried a lot of different methods like scowling and pushing him away. But when we used Tobasco Sauce and it worked a charm. Go nuts with it, lots and lots. You can even put some on his tongue when he's chewing and keep doing that till he gets the message. Be proactive at first, keep an eye on him and whenever he chews make sure you are there if possible.

[wadsy]

A power cable around 30cm off the ground and connected to a power socket and making sure the current switched on in the vicinity of the offending beast would certainly stop the problem, albeit maybe permanently. I do think if I had a dog that was like you describe I would get rid of the pr*&k!!.

[MTW]

All dogs need to chew. Especially the first year of their life, they should have some toys that are suited to this purpose. You sound like you have an especially difficult problem in that your dog is chewing something strange and expensive ... maybe there is absolutely nothing for him to chew (like shoes, towels, wood furniture edges, and/or he stays under the car for shade therefore finds what is in front of him.

Usually, as your dog grows up, if you take his attention away from something that shouldn't be in his mouth, and immediately put toys, bones, whatever he can safely chew (stuffed animals are cheap here and most dogs like them), the dog will learn what is okay and what is not pretty quickly. However you will need to spend time with your dog in order to be there to correct his behavior. If you just throw him in the yard to live alone, he cannot learn what to do or not do.

Walking your dog can help boredom but will not stop chewing as this is a natural and necessary behavior. Give him plenty of choices, i.e. bones that are safe (not large pieces of rawhide because these can get stuck in the throat or stuck in the intestines causing fatal blockages, or requiring surgery to remove), some soft toys, balls that are large enough he cannot swallow but not basketball size either, squeaky toys. Play with him with these toys, put them on his bed, change them around from time to time.

Having another dog if this one is kept alone, can help a lot to keep him happy and entertained if you don't want or cannot spend much time with him. But they will both need things to chew. Dogs that don't have anything will look for anything, sometimes even chewing rocks which quickly destroys their teeth. One woman I met when I worked at a Humane Society, came in to adopt a new dog ... because her dog was kept in the yard alone with nothing to chew. He eventually chewed through a wood post that held up her balcony and died when it fell on him.

Also, maybe you should move this to the "plants, pets and vets" section so you can get more helpful replies than some of the above. Read about the problem on pet websites.

Good luck.

[John K]

Bad taste works well. Even putting ammonia in garbage bags keeps the dogs from going after food scraps.

[MTW]

I think the point here, should be, to give the dog a decent, naturally enjoyable life. Not to put toxic substances in a place he may want to eat/chew, burn his tongue off, and torture him into behaving the way you want.

My mother put tabasco sause in my brother's mouth when he was about 8 years old. She thought this might be a good idea, to stop him from swearing, like putting soap in a kid's mouth. I would never do either of these things, but at least an 8 year old kid can understand better than a dog what you are trying to accomplish. Anyway, he ended up having to go to the emergency room to treat the burns it caused.

I'm waiting for someone to suggest rat poison, although others have expressed the same sentiment, although I guess I understand, they are joking?

[soic]

I think the point here, should be, to give the dog a decent, naturally enjoyable life. Not to put toxic substances in a place he may want to eat/chew, burn his tongue off, and torture him into behaving the way you want.

My mother put tabasco sause in my brother's mouth when he was about 8 years old. She thought this might be a good idea, to stop him from swearing, like putting soap in a kid's mouth. I would never do either of these things, but at least an 8 year old kid can understand better than a dog what you are trying to accomplish. Anyway, he ended up having to go to the emergency room to treat the burns it caused.

I'm waiting for someone to suggest rat poison, although others have expressed the same sentiment, although I guess I understand, they are joking?

I didn't suggest putting the oil in the dog's mouth... only on the object that shouldn't be chewed. What your mother did was cruel. The smell of pepper oil would be enough to keep the dog away, the only way it would go in it's mouth would be if it put it there. The dog should also be given something else to chew on. Proper correction is not torture. You remind me of someone I know in the states.... "I would never think of spanking or raising my voice to my children"... and when they got older, they lovely little *&%&%* used to beat the crap out of her. For her kids, I suggested strangulation or drowning, she didn't take me up on that either.

[steffi]

Interesting as I went and bought those bone like chew toys for all four dogs and even thoughe each had it's own chew toy each dog wanted the others chew toys. Needless to say this leads to possessive behaviour and the dogs personality changes considerably. Even a six month old dog wanted to rip our legs off if we went anywhere near what it wanted to chew.