My Boston Terrier, 10 weeks old, is quite active and seems to be extemely
healthy. We go for hour long walks and visits around the neighborhood each
evening. She looks forward to visiting with all of her "friends". Dogs and
people. We stop usually midway at a neighborhood park and Dixie always is
chewing on cement. Front teeth and sometimes she'll turn her head to use
her canines. The scraping sound of her teeth on the cement is worse than
fingernails on a chalkboard. We also have a brick kitchen island at home
and I've caught her sidling up to it gnawing on the bricks.
She does have her puppy molars that are erupting, but that is not where the
chewing is focused, mostly on her front teeth and canines. Anybody else had
a dog who had a thing for concrete?
Perry
bentcajungirl

bentcajungirl wrote:
My Boston Terrier, 10 weeks old, is quite active and seems to be extemely
healthy. We go for hour long walks and visits around the neighborhood each
evening. She looks forward to visiting with all of her "friends". Dogs and
people. We stop usually midway at a neighborhood park and Dixie always is
chewing on cement. Front teeth and sometimes she'll turn her head to use
her canines. The scraping sound of her teeth on the cement is worse than
fingernails on a chalkboard. We also have a brick kitchen island at home
and I've caught her sidling up to it gnawing on the bricks.
She does have her puppy molars that are erupting, but that is not where the
chewing is focused, mostly on her front teeth and canines. Anybody else had
a dog who had a thing for concrete?

No, but it sounds like something you'd want to discourage before
she gets her adult teeth. Does concrete have any minerals in it
that might be lacking in her diet?

Dylan gnawed on a redwood rail on our deck for a while, but she
got over it after a couple of applications of Bitter Apple.

FurPaw
--
There's no reason to give credence to anything spoken above 90
decibels.

To reply, unleash the dog.

I am curious if there is some vitamin "deficiency" that would cause the
concrete snacking. I would be hard pressed to believe that's it, though.
Her eyes are bright, her coat is shiny and her pads are smooth, toenails
normal, and she's growing like a weed. She licks people more than any dog
I've had, I wonder if she's licking for salt?.....
Perry
bentcajungirl
"Tara O." wrote in message
...
I don't think its the concrete in terms of flavor that is enticing but
that
its cold and rock-solid. Try getting her some very dense, tough rawhide
(or
similar) chews. Not something that comes apart easily or turns to mush
quickly. I'd definitely discourage the chewing on hard surfaces because
she
will quickly wear her teeth down and is very prone to breaking one or more
of them. When they wear their teeth down so much or break them, its
becomes
hard for the dog to eat normally.

--
Tara

"bentcajungirl" wrote in message
...
I am curious if there is some vitamin "deficiency" that would cause the
concrete snacking. I would be hard pressed to believe that's it, though.
Her eyes are bright, her coat is shiny and her pads are smooth, toenails
normal, and she's growing like a weed. She licks people more than any dog
I've had, I wonder if she's licking for salt?.....
Perry

It could be but it sounds more like teething behavior to me.

--
Tara

bentcajungirl wrote:

My Boston Terrier, 10 weeks old, is quite active and seems to be extemely
healthy. We go for hour long walks and visits around the neighborhood each
evening. She looks forward to visiting with all of her "friends". Dogs and
people. We stop usually midway at a neighborhood park and Dixie always is
chewing on cement. Front teeth and sometimes she'll turn her head to use
her canines. The scraping sound of her teeth on the cement is worse than
fingernails on a chalkboard. We also have a brick kitchen island at home
and I've caught her sidling up to it gnawing on the bricks.
She does have her puppy molars that are erupting, but that is not where the
chewing is focused, mostly on her front teeth and canines. Anybody else had
a dog who had a thing for concrete?

I have a friend whose dog chewed up the concrete between the bricks of
his walls. He has grown out of that chewing up the whole house phase,
but I don't know for sure how they survived in the meantime. I do know
that the dog now has teeth that are very worn on one side and my friend
tries to make him chew more evenly because of it. I hadn't thought to
ask if it was because of his concrete and brick chewing in his youth.
In any event, I would try to encourage her to chew on other things. I
have found that soaking rags in bouillion and then freezing them is very
enticing to teething dogs. If it tastes good as well as getting that
chewy urge out, they're more likely to skip the concrete. I also found,
by accident, that my teething pup loves frozen bagels, and so do the
other dogs. They actually take a while to get through them and there is
nothing in there to choke on or harm them. Good luck getting her out of
this habit!

--
Paula
"Some of my wife's relatives, to drive them crazy, you'd
have to put the car in reverse." -- Doctroid Holmes

Anybody else had
a dog who had a thing for concrete?

Hehe, sounds a bit like Daisy the Old English we had. Probably the dumbest
dog to grace this earth, but she seemed very happy with her lot!
She ate just about anything. Try:-

* house bricks from 6 inches to about 3 foot off the ground on all external
corners of the house,
* wine bottles- if she found one, you would discover the neck & base, with
the rest of it gone,
* all the bulbs out of my motorbike- leaving the bayonets (I was doing some
electric stuff in the garage, wondered inside for a coffee, came back and
was totally mistified until Daisy walked past looking contented....).

The vet used to get the giggles whenever mum turned up with Daisy- he just
couldn't beleive a dog would be that daft. I think the worst that she got
was a prolapsed rectum from a particularly large housebrick thankfully!

You wouldn't have beleived the paranoia that went round the house when there
was an Empty Bottle after someone had had some wine- for years we drove
round with the empties put directly into the car awaiting offloading in a
bottle bank- we must have sounded very suspect!

Cheers, J.