The incredbile chewing puppy - pictures!

[saltire]

Pictures on my profile of the damage he has done to the wall and woodwork in the room he sleeps in

I think I'd buy a puppy cage, cute though.

oops

Had a lab/dalmation and he chewed along the buried electric cable in the wall.

We sprayed no chew from floor to above his 'up on back feet' height everywhere and it worked, sprayed twice a day.

We have tried no chew spray, and mustard, and chilli and aftershave and all teh other suggestions.

He ahs a crate, which he goes into if he is on his own, ie at night and when we ar eout, but if he is the room during the day when I am in then he does it.

I have to say he is cute..although I can see clearly making his presence felt

He is now 6months old. He chews everything, socks,paper,shoes,wood,toys,lego,scourer sponges,plastic bottles,laces,cushions, etc.
He has chewd Dr Whos head off, my Dirty dancing Lp(which was on a shelf, he stood on the table to get to it), a book he took fromt eh bookcase. Sigh

How uncouth.
Kittens make much better pets.

Don't worry about Dr Who, he will regenerate.

Cage unless 1 to 1 supervision as at this rate he willbe at the vets for removal of foreign object---pricey!!

Have you tried a buster cube or kong ?

There are various versions of them on the market at different prices, they may help to keep him occupied for a while which means at least while he's doing that he will be too busy to damage anything else.

Can't tell exactly from the picture, but he looks like he has a lot of border collie in him? He's probably getting bored, collies need a lot of exercise and also plenty of mental stimulation.

Another option would be to get him 'hooked' on one particular type of toy, eg frisbees, balls or rope pulls, if he focusses his attention onto one of those then it won't matter if he destroys them as they are easily replaceable and don't have any personal/sentimental value.

Could be worse though, years ago one of my dogs ate through an entire kitchen cupboard and its contents then had the fridge/freezer door seal and contents of fridge for dessert! Mind you, he was a big dog!

You have my sympathy, 6-12 months can often be a nightmare time for chewing due to teething and/or adult teeth bedding in. He should grow out of it as long as you don't let the behaviour become too much of a habit.

Just noticed he does it when you are with him, it would be well worth teaching him the 'leave' command as once that's established you can get him to stop almost any behaviour using it.

There are several ways to teach this but the quickest is to get him to sit in front of you and show him you have some treats.

Give him a few small treats one after the other then hesitate. When he goes to try and take one himself say 'leave' in a firm voice and don't release a treat. He will probably persist and try every trick in the book to get the treat out of your hand at first and eventually sit down or take a step back. As soon as he takes a step away or sits down and doesn't try to take the treat say 'good leave' and give him the treat.

You will need to repeat this process many many times until he is immediately reacting to the word 'leave' in the appropriate way. When he is doing this consistently you can try using the command to get him to leave other things, always remembering to instantly reward him for the right reaction. If he doesn't respond you will need to go back a few steps and repeat the training process.

It is important to remember never to tell him off for getting it wrong, just go back a few steps, reinforce the training and try again later.

I think the 'leave' and the 'instant down' are the two most important things any owner can teach their dog. Not only can you interrupt/stop almost any undesirable behaviour with them, but they could also save his life.

He is Border Collie. he does the leave thing when he is told, but the chewing thing is because he in his bed, when i'm in the house, he follows me everywhere, so if I'm trying to cook for example he follows me around, barking if I ignore him. if i'm sitting at the table he barks and tries to get up. So he gets what I suppose amounts to "time out" and this is when he is doing it. If (and this rarely happens) I am in sitting room, and he is lying down sleeping then he is fine, but even if I get up to go to loo, he will follow me and try to get in, if he can't he goes and chews a book off the bookcase, or if I leave him in sitting room he is at the cushions.
I love him to bits but the following,chewing and barking are doing my head in
Its nowhere near as bad with DH. If DH is sitting eating at the table he gets left and pup lies at his feet, he never bats an eyelid if DH leaves the room. its like Mary had a little lamb

I would poss get a water spray and spray him when he does it in front of you and crate for whenever you are in the room.

Try a bone?

I have a champion chewer. She has got better as she has aged, but still loves underwear and tea towels in particular.

We tried the water spray but she liked it

When I give her a bone she doesn't chew other stuff.

Sounds like he is trying to be above you with the pawing, destroying and barking at you but not DH.

Is there a place that is undamagable that is within easy reach?

Or could you crate him.

saltire, sounds to me like he is over-attached to you. The anxiety he feels when he can't be with you is alleviated by the destruction/chewing.

Rather than giving him time-outs somewhere else you need to teach him to cope with time spent on his own.

You need to be firm and ignore the barking and jumping up. You are doing exactly the right thing not rewarding him for this behaviour, unfortunately even taking him to his time-out place is paying him attention (in his mind).

There are various ways of teaching him a 'signal' that means he is not going to get any attention from you, but it would be long winded to explain here. (Mainly as I'm not very good at explaining things. )

You could try a DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) collar here . These give off the pheromones released by the mum when pups are nursing, this has a relaxing effect on most dogs and can help to reduce anxiety. A lot of vets have started using DAP diffusers in their waiting rooms.

We have used the DAP diffuser here which was great for helping one of our dogs deal with her fear of fireworks and for settling in a new pup. But I think the collar would probably suit your pup better as he doesn't spend all his time in one room.