Last month I wrote about how my dog's New Year's resolution was to ditch the dog food and start on the 'woodchip' diet. After she chewed through all of our windowsills, the AT community was wonderful in helping me...
figure out the best way to fix it! My husband took a reader's advice and used wood epoxy, in this case J-B Weld KwikWood Epoxy Putty. See the step-by-step results below.
First, he removed any splinters and lightly sanded the damaged and surrounding area. He then pinched off a bit of wood epoxy then mashed it together to combine the layers and activate the chemical reaction. The clay-like substance was molded directly onto the damaged area. A few hours later, a second layer was applied and molded to the exact shape of the window sill.
After allowing it to dry completely overnight we sanded it down with a sanding block.
Finally, the area was repainted.
And to ensure that this doesn't happen again, we took another reader's great advice and sprayed the windowsills with Grannick's Bitter Apple Spray. Not to worry, there are no small children in this house!
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Forget the apple spray, start crate training!
Looks good--congratulations!
Does this work on wood which isn't painted, but rather stained?
I wish I'd thought of this when my dog chewed the baseboards a few years ago!
Nice job! Not sure if you want to rely on the bitter apple-I had a lab/husky mix who loved the stuff.
Looks great, glad that worked for you!
I'd have to agree with radioriot in that I think crate training is really the way to go.
nice work. fwiw: you can achieve a similar result with bondo (or other automotive body fillers). bondo also dries enough to sand (or add a second coat) in less than an hour and -- if JBweld-wood-expoy has a similar consistency to other JBweld products -- bondo likely has a lighter "body" (more similar to wood, perhaps) which might make sanding easier. if you've more sills to do and you're out of JB, you might give it a shot.
Does anyone have input on if this application work outdoors too? My lovely little lab decided to chew on a wooden pilar outside.
nice job. I'd recommend doing a test spray with the bitter apple first. My dog was actually drawn to it and chewed everything I sprayed.
GreenLadyPants, I don't know if it works for wood that is stained but my gut would say no since the epoxy dries with a clay-like finish so you wouldn't have the 'wood grain' look of the rest of the piece.
And yes, we agree with crate training which she is, but Labs still have their moments!
Thanks for the tip on the bitter apple spray, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if she ended up loving it! lol.
I remember a guy whose father, while the guy was very young, had kept the guy's thumbs flavored with hot peppers to stop his thumb-sucking. Instead, the guy continued thumb-sucking until much later and developed a lifelong love of very spicy hot food.
Do Not Ever Use Bondo on wood!!
What a great transformation!!! My dog ate a lot of expensive things in it's day however, rest assure they usually quit around 2yrs. It's like a switch goes off and they realize you don't want them to eat everything.
I opened this post up- and was like OMG What would I do? Brilliant- thanks for sharing! And I agree with radioriot- try the bitter apple and crate training. I also would try out frozen stuffed kongs to keep that mouth busy. Good luck!
Hi; thanks for putting this up! I've managed to avoid disaster with my pup, but know others who'd love this hint. Also, if the bitter apple or bitter break sprays don't work, spot check some tea tree oil and use it if it doesn't damage the surface. My boyfriend's puppy likes the bitter spray, but I'm yet to meet one who cares for tea tree oil.
Great job!
What a great idea, thank you! Our baseboards were chewed up while our puppy was teething, so I don't think crate training is going to do anything to help that. After the damage was done, we made sure to give him plenty of safe chew toys and natural hide while we're gone for him to be distracted enough to ignore those tasty floorboards.
@Princess... no matter how many exclamation points you use, bondo has worked well on painted wood for me and may others (indoors and outdoors) for years. in fact, most epoxy wood fillers are nothing but polyester resin filler (bondo) with a different colored hardener. you can also read the opinions of contractors at: http://tinyurl.com/46o3bcs ... bondo -- or any wood filler -- at this scale/use is not suitable for stain-grade work.
Yeah, our dogs went on the same diet and chewed through the wall & baseboard! We'll def. have to try this. When we sprayed our box spring with bitter apple, my dogs were like, "Mmm, gravy!"
yea...when my brother joined the blue angels, he dumped his untrained puppy on me and she destroyed all wood corners of my brand new kitchen cabinets. i taped the corners with paper flaps and sprayed them down with bitter apple. and i shouted "no" everything she was curious. they respond to command tones. and i loaded up with new toys, changing them out every few days to keep the novelty......
Thank you for this. I have a Boxer who is crate trained but bottle fed which pretty much cancels each other out. We're beginning to run and pay more attention to said destructo dog but the window sill is long digested. I will certainly give this idea a shot.
...And it's nice to know there are others who come home to a new project as often as I do. :)
Oh great! Now I know what to do with the cabinet our puppy destroyed a year ago.
Now can you help me with how to fix a patch of chewed up hardwood floor? It's about eight inches long and a gagillion years old...
Wow, Micki! Two great lessons in one!
How to repair damaged wood (terrific job on your part, by the way; thanks for the tutorial!) and how to manage animals that destroy said wood.
Excellent information and follow-up by AT commenters!
What if the dog tries chewing it again? is the epoxy dangerous?