Paper Eater

corbinam

corbinam

Moderator
I am going crazy over here...Bentley loves to eat anything made out of paper! Toilet paper, tissues, printer paper, cardboard boxes, ANYTHING!

And I don't know what to do about it. He knows that it's wrong because he never does it when we are watching. He will sneak off and by the time we realize that he's been in the other room for a minute, he has eaten something else.

We try to be really good about putting all paper goods away, closing the bathroom door, and we even bought trash cans for the bathrooms with lids...but he has figured out how to step on the trash can to open it up!

I know that it could be worse, but he's eaten so much before that he throws it up, and they are large chunks of paper (sorry to be so graphic)...I don't want this to cause him lasting damage.

Any suggestions? We correct him when we catch him, but as I said, he knows it's "wrong" and he normally drops what he's eating if we see him. Are there any toys out there that feel like paper to a dog? He doesn't play much with toys or rawhides...but he has a lot!

Thanks in advance!
 
you can try bitter apple spray on paper items. I do that with my bathroom basket as all of mine are paper shredders and will empty out and shred within milliseconds. Just spray bitter apple on it and they dont like the taste so they stop doing it.
 
Sounds familiar. Tully does the same. She does it when she is bored, and esp when I am still asleep and they are prowling the house for things to do. I think its the tearing things apart that she likes the most.

You could try a ball of wool. Mine will pull apart a ball of wool and at least I can wind it back into a ball again. I would suggest thick wool as the finer stuff is easier for them to break apart. Otherwise you could try just giving him empty food cartons to pull apart - or something of certain thickness so he learns he can chew boxes this thick but not other paper, then just give him your empty cereal packets and similar to chew. I figure if they are going to chew, better to direct their mouths where it will do the least harm.
 

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Sounds familiar! Ariel is a paper freak too.

Anything paper that drops on the floor is fair game. Paper towels, receipts, bills, you name it. If I don't remember to close the door to the potty she'll unroll the toilet paper. It is maddening.

I've stopped it somewhat by giving her my empty egg cartons. I give them to her with a few treats inside each egg spot. She loves it. Of course this only applies to the paper cartons not those foam ones.

The only problem this created is now she barks whenever I get eggs out of the fridge. I've got to open the carton inside and sneak an egg out.
 
Ariel said:
The only problem this created is now she barks whenever I get eggs out of the fridge. I've got to open the carton inside and sneak an egg out.
Click to expand...

ROFL! :lol:

It's only a matter of time until she figures out that eggs=carton. You know how wicked smart Shelties are.
 
Aonghus is obsessed with used dryer sheets. It feels like I spend my life telling him to "drop it" and picking up shreds. I don't even know where he finds them sometimes, I try to leave the blasted things in my (outside) laundry room garbage. He also shreds other paper items, but not nearly as bad as the dryer sheets!
 
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Fergus eats all of the above mentioned products and then some. Maybe it's a sheltie thing. I haven't figured out how to stop this behavior. I just try to keep things out of his reach.
 
Nah, that is not paper eating, its called sheltie art-work. I know, we went through this, and they stopped, thank goodness.
 
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