dog going after hide glue

[ttalma]

I was horrified this afternoon when I went in my bedroom and saw that my dog had chewed the veneer off the ogee foot of a chest of drawers and had chewed the 1/4 round about 10 inches above the foot. This is a chest of drawers I had restored and moved into my bedroom about 8 months ago. I can fix the damage But I want to prevent this from happening again.

I am not sure why the dog decided to go after this piece after after sitting in the same spot for most of a year. I can only guess she was interesed in the hide glue. One side of the foot has the original veneer and the other replacment veneer (the chest is from about 1840's). She chewed off all of it. The 1/4 round was reattached with fresh hide glue, and the veneer was hammer on.

I have 2 other pieces I made in the same room that I used hide glue on as well, one has been there for 3 years and the other about 1 1/2 years, and the dog has left those alone. All 3 pieces are finished in shellac as well.

So any ideas on why the dog may have decided to go after the piece after all this time? And how do I prevent it from happening again? Currently the dog is banned from the room, but I have other pieces in my house.

If not for my wife and the fact the dog saved our lives when we had a garage fire, the dog would be on it's way to Lollipop farm!

 

[albreed]

Your dog has an obvious distaste for veneered ogee feet. Perhaps a Spanish or French foot would be more acceptable to her. Maybe you could send her to some night classes at the local college, maybe art history, in order to get her to appreciate your work....On thee other hand, your dog may be experiencing the Reverse Son of Sam syndrome, where it's hearing voices telling it to kill your furniture. That could be serious.
Actually, my dogs go nuts over hide glue, and scour the floor of the shop, even eating mahogany banding with glue on it. Maybe that batch was especially flavorful....But they have never eaten finished work. I would say give the dog one of those dried pig's ears, or something that's easier on the gums than hardwood. Or maybe offer her a big bowl of glue that would make her so sick she'd never touch the stuff again........Al

 

[Rick Yochim]

Tim,

Well that's a new one.

As Al says, finding her a chew toy that takes her mind off this and future pieces is a good idea. I'm guessing the aroma in your latest batch of hide glue was too much and she just had to have it.

Next time, consider finding something like pepper or some harmless to her scented thing she doesn't like that you could lightly spray/spritz or rub on that would turn her off to the scent so she leaves it alone.

Back in the day I never had much luck with Old Spice so maybe modern women still feel that same repulsion. It was the after shave, I'm sure of it. 

Rick Yochim 

 

[R Bohn]

Tim,

This brings back memories of a job I did a few years back.  A customer called me to fix the legs of some furniture he inherited from his Grandmother.  His dog had chewed on all the legs of the furniture he had just received, but none of the furniture he of his own.  So I fixed the dog bites in the legs and that was the end of the story.  About two months later I get a call from him and now the dog had chewed just above my repairs.  So I went back to repair the legs and this time after talking to the gentleman for awhile, he finally let out that during the 50's Grandma had polished her furniture with Spam!  That's right the pork stuff in a can.  I called the Hormel company and although they did not promote this action, they were aware of spam being used as a furniture polish.  Anyway back to the furniture, now armed with information of why the legs were so tasty to the dog, the task at hand was how to stop him.  Because I did not know how much was spam covered and or how to remove spam, I decided to change the taste of the legs.  I found a powdered red hot pepper, which I added to my shellac and lightly French Polished the furniture.  Must have worked the dog has done no further damage.    Oh by the way, dogs think of hide glue as beef gravy, they love the stuff.

Randy