Chewing!!!!

As you all know i got a lovely puppy not so long ago. She is about 8mths old now and is still chewing things. Today i went out and bought a new carpet and me and my dad went out to b&Q for 20min. When i come back the carpet was shredded. I literally had to stand there for about 10 seconds before i could say anything to her. As soon as i went into the room she ran behind the couch and hid. I didnt even say anyting.

Is there anything i can do to stop this chewing? Its getting to the point now where im either thinking of putting a muzzle on her when im out or putting her back in the cage until she hopefully grows out of it.

Realistically i dont want to do any of this. Its been such a long time since i had a dog that chews i cant really remember what i did to get Pebbles to stop.

Im totally at my wits end now.

We had this problem with Cain. He arrived with us at 8 months old and was super chewy when left. This is how we dealt with it.

1. Dog proof a room. We used the kitchen as there is bery little to chew in there. We cleared the sides of anything except essential appliances eg kettle, toaster (as he was counter surfing). We took everything off of the floor, kitchen table, everything! Aside from kitchen cabinets, table and chairs and the carpet there was nothing he could chew.

2. Train him to be settled in this room and confine him to it when we went out. We gave him a bed in an open crate to sleep in while gone and now he knows his routine that when we leave he goes in the kitchen.

3. Keep him entertained. When we go out we leaving him an interactive toy to keep him busy eg a stuffed Kong, filled Buster cube, a filled Tug A Jug etc. He would spend 20 mins or so emptying it (longer if the Kong was frozen), then tired after using his brain, go to sleep. You may like to consider stuffing a cardboard box with newspaper, toilet roll tubes and treats so he can be destructive without damaging your possessions.

4. Leave down appropriate chew toys. Leave out rope toys, nylabones, or try a Stagbar antler chew.

5. Wait for him to grow up! Cain did grow out of it eventually but it took him a long time. Now we can leave him access to the whole house and he knows what are his toys and leaves our stuff alone.

Don't lose hope, your puppy will grow out of it eventually, some just take longer than others. Many dogs go through a SECOND teething stage at this age, it supposedly helps settle their adult teeth into their jaw. This may be why your dog is chewing. It may also be bordom or stress while you're away, an interactive toy may help relieve this (also try leaving a radio on for background noise). Until then all you cam really do it puppy proof the house, pick everything up and provide suitable chewing toys. Hope this helps

ps it's not safe to leave an unsupervised dog muzzled IMO.

Exellent advice above, nothing to add to that!

I have a 22 month old dog who is still very destructive and it is a real battle with her, so I feel your pain.

Well she did chew the sofa when we first let her out. But it was already coming apart. So she got told no and hasnt done it since. Its just anything left around she will chew. She has loads of toys lying around everywhere. She gets training and walks and is stimulated. I havnt got any nylabones for her. Didnt think about that. May go and get some. The sitting room and kitchen are pretty much dog proof now apart from wires behind the tv. But she has never tried to get them and is scared to walk on the glass stand. So i dont see her getting them in the future. She knows the leave command as well. Which she is really good at. But as soon as your not looking she just picks things up in her mouth all the time. She is like a kid lol.

I really hope she gets out of it soon as my other dog is used to having free run of the house and she hasnt at the minute because of how destructive Stella is. Its not fair on her.

Oh the muzzle thing i didnt want to do either. As you never know what it may catch on when your not in the house. Or it may even cause her to choke on it. But my dad was here saying 'put it in, put it in' lol.

Omg how on earth do you cope iwth a dog that old still chewing. Ive had a few months of it and sick already

Lack of choice, really! some dogs are naturally destructive and get a lot of pleasure from chewing. There doesn't necessarily need to be a reason for them to chew -- in my dogs case there is no 'reason', she just likes doing it! like yours, she'll pick up things that are left lying around. Luckily she doesn't normally go for the furniture, but has destroyed many cushions, chewed skirting boards, etc.

Shes a puppy and puppies chew some more so than others. If its not possible to block her off in a room then try crating her again. Its a form of separation anxiety when they do things like ripping up carpets. They get security from their crates

You do not mention how much physical and mental exercise this dog gets, dogs often chew from boredom.

imo this could be s.a not 'puppy chewing' with sa the most damage is usually done within the first 20 mins.

i would work on her being left rather than putting it down to her age..she is an insecure teenager imo.

eta.. you cannot leave an unsupervised dog muzzled!

I agree that it could be SA or possibly boredom - a lot more info would be required to find out for sure!

Whatever you do, don't tell her off. From what you described of her reaction, she was worried (dog's don't feel guilt, but they do react to human behaviour and try to appease).

Sometimes SA can be exacerbated by a cross (understandably) owner, as the dog starts to also go to the toilet in the house due to anxiety, and so you get an even worse scenario

So you need to find out more about why the dog is doing it and then take steps to manage/train/help her if she is anxious.

Wys
x

What choice is there for those of us with destructive dogs? Rehome them? Mine's 8 years old and still gets crated when left for more than a few minutes because if he's bored nothing is safe from his teeth. It's not seperation anxiety, it's certainly not teething at his age, he quite simply likes to tear things to pieces.

I do find that if I give him opportunities to indulge in his love of shredding things and make sure he's had plenty of mental exercise his destructive tendencies are less obvious though. He gets given empty boxes, the tubes from toilet rolls, empty egg cartons with his dinner inside them etc to shred and I do regular clicker training sessions with him. I was away for a week not long ago and he wasn't getting anywhere near the amount of mental stimulation he normally does as my hubby works full time and he took to destroying tissues, toilet rolls and anything else he could find over night which he's not done for about 6 years.