Chewing

Ugh. So I think some of Barney's chewing on himself to the point of skin infection is part of a chewing addiction.

His itching seems to be much better lately (due to the steroids), so he's finally growing some hair back where he chewed it off (although he still chews his back left thigh :roll: .

Anyways, I've been hearing him chew lately, a lot, and I tell him to stop...and I look over and he's actually licking/chewing the carpet! Now, we have somewhat shaggy carpet, but I don't think he's dumb enough to mistake it for himself :lol: ...maybe he just likes to lick? Is there anything I can do to stop this behavior...my carpets are turning brown where he's licking them...
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give him something else to chew on and keep busy. we have one who does this and yes it started out as an injury and became a habit.

Our guy also has seperation anxiety issues so medication can be a fix - either permanent or temporary.
what about giving him a wooly man baby to suck....panda loves to suck her babys' feet!
I've thought of giving him something else to chew on, but he won't :?

He has plenty of chew toys and barely touches any of them. I'll even slip one between him and whatever he's chewing and he'll just gently nudge it aside so he can get on with the real chewing :roll:
in that case something he can lick - we use a kong with their favorite little treat.
My 13 month OES has had an infatuation with carpet for about 7 months now and if we do not divert her attention as soon as she starts the licking then in about 2 minutes we will have a hole in the carpet!!! To distract her we tell her no and move where we are in the room. We tried telling her no and giving her something else to lick/chew but she will only push it aside and continue with the carpet. But when we move to a different area of the room/house she will also move where she is at as she cannot stand to have us out of her site. The movement seems to make her forget that she was about to have a berber treat :)
Step, have you tried bitter apple? Test it first on the carpet but it should be okay. We used it directly on Gabe and Jonah's heads to prevent them from chewing on each other but I think they just got used to the taste :roll:
Where is he itchy?

Is it somewhere that can be covered by wearing a kids long sleeve shirt or pants?

I had a dog that had chronic hot spots. After many trips to the vet and subsequent trips to the k9 dermatologist, I was advised to just have her wear a long sleeve shirt. Apparently keeping the air off of it reduces the dog's desire to chew on it. And it always worked.

The hardest part was picking out a kid's size that fit her. :D

Good luck!
Holly, I've tried Bitter Apple and he either doesn't mind the taste or so wants to lick whatever it is he's licking that he'll power through the bad taste :roll:

QuailTrail--he's itchy pretty much everywhere :( So I don't think a tshirt would work, especially since it's his paws and back upper thigh areas that seem to be his favorites (and we've tried socks but those last like one minute and then they're off--plus, he'll pee sometimes when we try to put them on).
Tasker has started his "fall" chewing and licking, I wake up at night to the sound and it drives me crazy.


I have used bitter apple with some success on UNBROKEN SKIN, but usually I end up resorting to the E collar. As soon as he starts to lick an area to the point of turning the hair brown I clip that area down. That keeps the hair from matting and a hot spot from developing.

Makes himlook funny but keeps the skin intact and infections at bay.
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