So my wonderful Bode has gone through two collars in a week. We came home from work the other day to find he had chewed his collar (that he has had for months) off in his kennel. He's never showed any dislike or discomfort for collars before, and the mowers had come to do the lawn during the day when we weren't there and he was in his kennel (which hasn't happened before) so we thought maybe he had just gotten scared or something. Put his tags on the back up collar we have that I don't like that much and decided it was a great opportunity to order a soft slip from White Pine. The next day when he was in his kennel for the day, we took the back up collar off just in case but left it on the next few days with no problems. The new collar came yesterday and we put him in the kennel today for maybe 5 hours and came back to it chewed off!  

Obviously the no brainer from this point on is to take his collar off him every time he gets left in the crate, no reason it has to be on and it's safer anyways. But does anyone have any clue why he would do this or had a similar experience? He's always been pretty good in his kennel, though he has pulled some things in there that we've left too close before and chewed them, but only a couple times. Sometimes we leave him a chew toy, but not all the time. I imagine it's probably just boredom, just weird that it's never happened before. I'm also curious how he gets his jaw in there to chew it!

Years back when we had Alley she used to chew her rabies and dog tag, two waded up pieces of aluminum hanging by a "s" hook.

Yikes! Looks like you might want to invest in Lupine collars... lol. Juneau sometimes chews on her tag, but I always catch her and make her stop.

I think it's weird that he has been fine wearing them all this time and now all of a sudden he's interested. I would leave his collar off for about a week (except when you let him outside) and then make him wear it again. Maybe he'll forget about chewing on it.

Well we got a brand new easy walk harness for Loki, he had it on for 10 minutes in his crate while I put some laundry on and he chewed it in two places!!!


Not to hijack but Jackie your Juneau and my Loki like somewhat alike lol

Saphire figured out very quickly how to stretch and chew any collar or harness that had an adjustable clasp on it. She figured out how to rub up against things in order to get the collar or harness large enough to back out of it and then she would just chew away. We switched to a leather collar with no adjustment strap and haven't had any problems since. She wears her collar all the time just to be safe.

Hope this helps some.

Lupine maybe? They give you a new one if yours gets destroyed, including being chewed through!

I thought about Lupine, but for some reason I don't really like their stuff. I can't put a finger on it. And if this is going to be a constant thing, it seems like a pain to get replacements all the time.

Oh well, so far it's only happened in his kennel, so we will just take it off when he's in there. I really liked the soft slip we just bought too. Guess I'm ordering another. I thought about saying we just never received it in the mail and see if they'd send another, but I couldn't do that. I would feel bad. I can't lie, lol.

Balonsmom wrote:

Well we got a brand new easy walk harness for Loki, he had it on for 10 minutes in his crate while I put some laundry on and he chewed it in two places!!!


Not to hijack but Jackie your Juneau and my Loki like somewhat alike lol

OMG Loki DOES look like Juneau!!  I'm posting this in the look-alike thread!  I've never seen another husky look like Juneau.

mgoblue wrote:

I thought about Lupine, but for some reason I don't really like their stuff. I can't put a finger on it. And if this is going to be a constant thing, it seems like a pain to get replacements all the time.

Oh well, so far it's only happened in his kennel, so we will just take it off when he's in there. I really liked the soft slip we just bought too. Guess I'm ordering another. I thought about saying we just never received it in the mail and see if they'd send another, but I couldn't do that. I would feel bad. I can't lie, lol.

lol I can't lie either.  You could e-mail them and tell them that he just chewed through it and you'd like another!  Say you'll give them good reviews and praise their customer service on a big husky forum. I know it sounds like a long shot but it doesn't hurt. lol. My boyfriend got discounts on car parts all of the time because he asked about discounts and told them he would give a product review on a car forum.

my moms dogs did that when they were at daycamp. never had any interest in chewing harnesses or collars, and one day, they both just decided to chew one dogs harness and the other dogs (leather) leash. i am thinking boredom. or, just a distraction to keep them from getting upset.

Lupine collars and harness,s will replace their collars free of charge if you mail it to them, the website is Lupinepet .com (even if they r chewed ) 

Bourbon was constantly (twice) chewing through his harnesses when he was little. Fine inside not fine on runner. We assumed boredom and not really sure of the harness but we then waitd until he was 7 months for get his Lupine and hav not had a problem since. not that that helps you. I was told that I should order a leather buckle style harness but a a little pup I was not wanting to do that and have to replace with growth. As Bode is older this might work since he should not grow out of a size if you could get it a little big for some growth. Now Beka chewed her tags all the time as a pup until about 2 years old never destroyed just chew. She just grew out of it I guess.

I would say for now no collars in the crate, since it has only been in the crate. COuld you try something else in the crate? Not sure if you can that he mmight eventually not like the collar at anytime. I was thinking of a bandanna or rope (as long as he could not injure himself) while in the crate so he does not get used to Not wearing a collar. But not sure if that matters.

Aaaaand make that 3 collars. So the way the kennel is set up we have long piece of wood on top of it that we were going to make a coffee table out of, but now makes the kennel serve as a kind of nightstand next to the bed since we are limited on space. This morning I put him in the kennel, took off his collar, and put it on top of the kennel with some of Anthony's t-shirts. Note that he has never pulled anything from off of this before. Got home today and he had pulled a bunch of stuff down and halfway into the kennel. Everything was otherwise untouched or unchewed EXCEPT for the collar. It's like he knew the collar was up there and purposely pulled the other stuff down in order to get the collar. Little Shit.

I think he is just trying to tell you he likes being naked.

Sorry, can't give any other advice, just couldn't resist.

Haha ohh man! He sure does have it out for that collar! What if you sprayed it with some bitter apple spray or something along those lines?

ccurran07 wrote:

Haha ohh man! He sure does have it out for that collar! What if you sprayed it with some bitter apple spray or something along those lines?

That could be something to try. For now we are taking it off in the kennel and keeping it FAR away from the kennel so he can't Houdini it...lol

Wow, reminds me of Nash when she was a pup. She had always chewed her harness's I got her, only chewed a collar once. I have a wolf plaque with prongs nailed to my wall that I hang all her stuff on. I also bent a coat hanger so it hangs on top of my closet door that I put the extra stuff on that wont fit on the other plaque.

Sounds to me that hes gotten board in the cage and now that he found out taking off the collar and chewing it=fun, he may keep doing it. May I suggest getting something like this http://tinyurl.com/m4pm3yr or http://tinyurl.com/onjo2a2 they are low cost and cant be chewed. If you leave it on him while hes in the cage maybe he will learn not to chew the collar. Also depending on how long you leave him in the cage, he should have some sort of toy/treat to keep him busy while your not around. I hear a Kong filled with pb keeps them happy.

I myself leave mine a raw bone like this http://tinyurl.com/yjvls3z

do not use the smaller ones like http://tinyurl.com/n4ld7u6 cause they can get stuck on the lower jaw of some dogs. The bigger bones are just fine though.

Also you may want to watch whats around his cage. Now that hes pulled stuff threw the cage, he may do it again.

Well hope that helps and good luck!

I love this thread, can't wait to see what Bodie does next!

Haha! Hopefully nothing. Collar is off, in another room and area around the kennel is temptation free. Plus I left a bone for him. We used to always leave some kind of chew toy in there but have been slacking lately, so that will come back too!

Yeah, he probably misses his bones! I can't believe I didn't think of that. I like to leave a bully stick for Juneau. Odor free, of course lol. Bones are good too.

VintageJeans wrote:

Yeah, he probably misses his bones!  I can't believe I didn't think of that.  I like to leave a bully stick for Juneau.  Odor free, of course lol.  Bones are good too.

It's been awhile since I started forgetting to toss them in there. The reason I stopped being so diligent about it was it seemed like they were always in the exact same place I left it in the kennel, so I figured he was just sleeping all day and not chewing the bone! Maybe I need to set up a doggie cam...lol