From stress. Captain has always been terrified of rain, but only recently has he decided to chew through my dining room door (80 years old, solid oak, hard as a rock) when it rains. This is not good.
Is there anything I can put on the remnants of my poor door to discourage him? Anything that actually works? (I realize the anxiety is the real problem. Look, every so often it rains in the middle of the day when I’m at work with no warning - I can’t sedate him every day when I leave in the morning!)
There’s a bitter apple spray that works somewhat. I’m not sure that its stinky enough to deter a really interested chewer. Do you provide other things for the dog to chew on while you are gone that are appropriate?
He doesn’t chew. He doesn’t play with his toys at all (and he has plenty) except very occasionally he’ll want to play tug of war with us. This is something he only does when distressed, and he’s doing it to get into the bedroom.
My inlaws had a chocolate lab with a pathological fear of lightning. They tried everything from crating him (broke the crate and emergency vet costs for dog repairs were in the hundreds of dollars and weeks of recovery), confining to one room (consumed drywall, baseboards and the bottom corner of the door) and finally gave him the run of the house.
Ironically after all the damage his attempts to escape made once he had the freedom to go anywhere he would spend all thunderstorms hiding in the darkest corner under the bed in the spare room. He still ate things during thunderstorms but it was less likely to damage him too so we just dealt with it when he happened to be alone during a storm.
As the reasons for chewing are more based on fear I’m betting the taste doesn’t even register. I suspect bitter apple won’t work.
We once had a cocker spaniel that could not be trusted alone in the house, so we tried keeping her in the garage. She severely damaged the door leading into the house in her attempts to gnaw through. Crating did not work* so I eventually got hold of a piece of sheet metal and attached it to the door, which solved the problem. Not the most attractive of solutions for indoors; brass would look better (this assumes again that leaving the door open is not an option).
My experience with the bitter taste aversion products is that a determined canine gnawer will ignore them.
*she also broke her crate, as well as crapping all over it.
In most cases, no crate is big enough to comfortably hold a dog for 8-9 hours. Most of them can’t handle being confined to a small area for that long. It causes anxiety problems, or makes them worse.
To the OP, on what side of the threshold is your door? You could try putting a child gate,like this in the doorjamb, if you have the room to install it on the correct side, or if the walls are narrow enough by the door to install it further away. The narrow spaces between the chinks should prevent the animal from chewing or clawing at your door.
You could also try leaving a small radio in the room, somewhere where the animal can’t get to it. Some animals feel more comfortable when they can hear people talking, and so it might be less anxious. Additionally, it might overwhelm the noise of rain, or at least make it less threatening.
Additionally, if you have a crate in the room, you can try covering it with blankets and putting it in a corner. If he’s chewing at the door because he’s desperate to escape the noise, providing him with a place to hide could alleviate the problem.
My dog uses his claws and teeth to destroy doors and dig up carpets. He has destroyed 4 so far. Not the big heavy ones, the hollow inside ones. The metal plate idea might work for your dog, but mine would damage his gums and pawpads bending the thing back. There are dents in the metal doorknob.
We have a Thundershirt too and it does seem to make him calmer. Or it could be a placebo effect. We can’t use a crate because he will try to chew his way out of that, too.
Our vet prescribed clomipramine but it didn’t seem to help. I have also heard of dogs getting xanax. Maybe your vet can suggest something similar.