Why Do Dogs Chew on Wood?
When you’re on a walk with your pooch, you might have noticed them pick up sticks or branches to chew on. Alternatively, your pup might continuously chew on a wooden piece of furniture in your house despite having a variety of chew toys to play with. So, what makes wood so enticing to dogs?
Dogs view wood as a chew toy, especially if you play fetch with them using sticks. Unfortunately, your pooch might not distinguish between your household furniture and a stick outside.
Excessive chewing is typically seen in puppies and young dogs during teething. Teething can start from as early as 3 weeks of age and can last until around 6 months of age. Puppies chew to help reduce pain while they’re growing teeth, as well as to explore the world around them.
This is a vital component of a puppy’s development. If they’re not taught which things are appropriate to chew on from an early age (such as your hands, household objects, and furniture), then it can be difficult to break this behavior once they get older.
Additionally, dogs chew to keep themselves occupied and to reduce boredom. If your pooch is left alone without any entertainment, then they might chew to help pass the time. However, if you notice your dog chews on furniture while you’re not home, this might be due to anxiety.
Some dogs can get separation anxiety, which can cause things like excessive chewing, whining, pacing, and toileting inside. Pooches with separation anxiety find it very stressful when their owner leaves or isn’t in their line of sight.
As dogs have no concept of time, they cannot distinguish between a few minutes and a few hours. So, even even if you’re only gone several minutes, the experience is just as stressful for your dog as if you’d been away a couple of hours.
During the time you’re away, your dog might chew as a coping mechanism. If there are no chew toys available, they might turn to your furniture or other household objects.
Lastly, dogs might chew wood because of pica. This condition causes animals to eat inedible or dangerous objects. Most cases of pica are caused by poor nutrition, but it can also be due to an intestinal parasite.
If you notice your pup continuously gnawing on or eating wood or other dangerous things, make sure you take them to a vet to get checked out.
What Wood Is Safe for Dogs to Chew?
While wood seems relatively harmless for dogs, there are a few risks associated with it. The next time your pup picks up a branch to chew on, you might want to consider taking it away.
The biggest hazard of wood is the type of tree it’s from. Some types of wood are toxic to dogs, including white cedar, Australian pine, cherry trees, and apple trees. Both cherry trees and apple trees can produce high levels of cyanide when consumed in large quantities.
As you can never be sure whether the stick you’re pooch is chewing on isn’t one of the deadly varieties listed above, it’s best to discourage your dog from gnawing on sticks altogether.
Furthermore, sticks found in a park could be coated in insecticide or poisonous chemicals that can make your dog very sick if consumed.
Another danger of wood is its tendency to splinter. When chewed on, wood easily splinters and breaks into little shards. These shards can puncture or cut up your dog’s mouth, which could cause an infection.
In addition to this, if your pooch ingests any pieces of wood, then they could get an intestinal blockage.
If your canine enjoys munching on wood, wooden chew toys are a much better alternative as they won’t splinter or make your pup sick. Wooden chew toys are either made entirely out of dog-safe wood or are mixed with other materials.
Can I Give My Dog a Piece of Wood to Chew?
The very swift answer to this is No! A piece of 2 by 4, an old chair leg, or a fallen branch are NOT good for dogs to chew on! Although dogs are often attracted to chewing wood items the danger of splinters, or chemicals used in wood products, is very real. So, if you are wondering – should dogs chew wood? No; normal wood is definitely not a good thing to give your dog as a chew toy. However, there are some very good alternatives. Read on to find out what they are.
Holidays4Dogs has recently discovered a product which is gaining in popularity on the dog food market. Root tree chews for dogs.
While writing for Holidays4Dogs and looking after my son’s Golden Retriever at the time, I noticed what looked like the remains of a piece of firewood. This I reported directly to my son who informed me this was a, ‘special wood dog chew’. I searched on-line for the product and indeed, these chews are actually tree roots and are perfectly safe for dogs to chew.
I felt a little bit excited at the prospect of a chew toy that didn’t involve animals parts, (cow hooves, antlers, rabbits ears etc.). Apart from anything else, they can be a bit smelly in the home.
How to Stop Dogs From Chewing Wood : Pet Behavior
Some dogs are natural chewers, especially when puppies, and unless you guide them they will chew items such as shoes or furniture that are unsuitable, simply because they had a need to chew and those items were conveniently to hand.
There are many chew toys available from retailers but I wanted to write a cautionary note about a relatively new (but expensive) type of dog chew toy – wood or root chews – which can be bought in many pet stores or online. I have seen two main types of such chews. One is irregularly-shaped lumps of “tree root” available in a range of sizes, the other is a stick-shape, again in different sizes, described as “coffee wood”. I bought both for my Labrador Retriever pup who has been chewing anything wood that she can get her teeth into, including my kitchen chairs and sticks she found on or under hedges in the garden, many of which splintered when she chewed them. Wood splinters can cause really serious problems for dogs if swallowed, becoming wedged in the throat or palate, perforating the abdominal tract or causing an intestinal blockage. I bought the wood chew toys so that I could re-direct her to a safe alternative when she felt the need to chew.
The “tree root” chew worked very well. She was a bit unsure about it at first so I rubbed some cheese over the knobbly surface to make it more appealing. She chewed enthusiastically on the irregular shape, gradually wearing it down with no sign of splintering.
However, the “coffee wood” chew, although initially successful when she gnawed on the end, suddenly began to splinter (see photograph), and potentially could have been quite hazardous as the splinters were hard and sharp. I was particularly concerned as my pup was only 5 months old and so her jaw muscles are nowhere near as strong as an adult dog. I suspect an older dog could have been a lot more destructive.
All dogs are different so the moral of this story is that you really do need to make sure that you always monitor what your dog is chewing, and be very sure that it is indeed safe to leave your particular dog alone and unsupervised with a chew toy.