Chewing is driving me to the brink

[CrazyPuppy]

DPup is a 7 month old whippet. He has always been a terrible chewer but now that most of his adult teeth are in, he is leaving destruction in his wake throughout the house. Recently he has gnawed:

2 pairs reading glasses
1 pair Prada sunglasses (wail)
1 precious rug
1 mobile phone
3 pairs slippers
Arms of 1 armchair
1 coffee table
His bed
Innumerable pens, pencils and stationery items
Assorted doors, door lintels, window sills, stair treads and bannisters

...and the list goes on. It looks like we have had a visit from the very hungry caterpillar!

He is crated in my room at night but we gave up on daytime crating as he just couldn't tolerate it and the howling was unbearable. But the thing is, he doesn't chew when I go out - he just snoozes peacefully. All the above items were consumed while we were here! We do try calmly redirecting on to toys but to be honest we don't always succeed in being calm. It is really beginning to get me down.

He gets plenty of off-lead exercise and is otherwise a really good boy, if a little excitable.

Please please tell me this will end! I feel like crying after his latest rampage of destruction.

My four month old whippet chews stuff for attention too, he grabs something and makes sure he's been clocked before making a mad dash. He'll chew on the sofa - always with one eye on me, he has a desire for excitement. It's hard to get the family to stop reacting to his antics. It's not even as if it's about lack of attention or exercise, he grabs things and chews whether we are playing with him or not!
Today I tried a new strategy......very softly, with a gentle sing song tone saying no biting but maintaining eye contact and then waiting till he turns away...seems to be working for him and I'm getting less worked up too. Early days!

We had a chewer and we had an 'indoors stick' and an 'outdoors stick' as well as multiple chew toys. You may also find tabassco quite a deterent if he regularly chews one or two things that you don't want him to - but clearly you can't do this for everything in the house. I would also do lots of door shutting so that the places he can go are limited and the items available in those rooms are also limited.

Thanks both.

Lux - YY to desire for excitement! DDs are getting much better about shrieking and waving their arms, but he still thinks charging off with something is hilarious. Maybe we will give your strategy a go - interested to hear if it works.

Mistle - I hadn't thought of tabasco! Door closing has not really worked for us. He gets anxious and chews the door/skirting board. Interspersed with tragic whining. It's odd because he is quite relaxed being left alone in the house, but being in another room or downstairs when we are all upstairs seems to really stress him out.

Ah, I meant close the door so that at least he's in the same room as you so its easier to see what he's getting up to!

Have you tried him with a kong stuffed with some of his normal food (if he's on an all-in-one kibble), mixed with a tiny bit of natural yoghurt or peanut butter and frozen? You would of course need to cut down his food by the same amount - this would give him something to really work at and get a positive reward for chewing.

Oh that makes more sense!

Right, the kong is in the freezer.

Will he grow out of this do you think? Or are we looking at a lifetime of storing everything above human head height??

Our worst chewer was a collie cross that we got at 10months from rescue. She chewed quite dramatically until she was about 3 - and then things gradually calmed down. She would still have bones in the garden, sticks that she chewed to bits in the garden, and hide chews every night. The hide chews might seem expensive but a lot less expensive than prada sunglasses! We also had soft toys that she chewed (and ripped to bits) - knotted tights or several pairs of old socks are good for this - knot these as tightly as you can and reknot whenever there's a bit hanging off. (That dog went through several pairs of shoes, bottles of shampoo, conditioner, talc, toothpaste and toothbrushes, a packet of soft centred boiled sweets and a tube of savlon and countless rolls of selotape amongst other things)

I do really recommend having an 'inside stick' too - we found one that was non-splintery and mistledog liked having a gnaw on that, leaving indentations but not getting large bits off. She had a bit of recycled tyre to chew too. And regularly had a kong stuffed very tightly with biscuits that she took a long time to get out.

Scrap the sing song tone, speak in a very calm and boring, he gets my attention but boring calm attention as I just sit there and watch.

Young whippets can be dreadful chewers, especially when coupled with their natural inclination to be thieving little sods

My youngest is 9 months old and still having the odd nibble on the furniture and will steal and chew anything that takes his fancy.

I've got two other young whippets (3.5 years and just short of 2 years) who were both terrible chewers (in fact the youngest is continuing the work the nearly-2 year old did on the skirting boards.....) but they did grow out of it. I remain hopeful that DWhippet3 will do as well!

One thing that has helped (to a degree) is providing things to chew which mimic the materials he likes chewing around the house. Things like antler chews and Anco Roots have gone down very well and curbed at least some of his desire to eat the coffee table.

Just returning to say thanks everyone. I have tried these suggestions and they are helping my nerves if nothing else!

The antler chew is going down especially well.