When will I be able to enjoy my belongings again?!

[3AndADog]

So pup is 5.5 months old. She bites/mouths/runs off with ANYTHING she can get in her mouth. As a result our lounge is empty - no toys for the kids, no shoes, no books, mugs, anything - everything has to be on kitchen worktop. No rugs or cushions on the sofa, she’ll chew on those too. It’s depressing me! Everyone has to be on high alert if they have anything on them - kids drawing at the table and can’t drop a pen/rubber/piece of paper or it will be destroyed. The dog has plenty of her own chews and toys of all textures - wood, yak, plastic, squeaky, rustly, soft, rope. She has blankets and bedding of her own. I am trying to train her ‘out’ with a treat whenever anything goes in her mouth that shouldn’t. At this rate we won’t be able to have a Christmas tree 😩
Will she grow out of this? She’s definitely teething, she has red raw gums at the moment.

Yep she will grow out of it.

When she has something you dont want just put treats on the floor I say "thank you" she will drop the item and eat the treats.

If you walk towards her she will off course run off and that will be the best game ever so dont ever do that.

It is normal to have things up high or out of the way when you have puppies (just like when you had toddlers) but soon you will be able to have your items out again.

Hang on in there - this too will pass

As PP said it does pass. We had nothing out when BiteyDog was a puppy and had to remove blinds etc because he used to bite them.

Now everything is in his reach because he just isn't interested in our stuff to destroy.

But don't expect it to instantly change overnight. I found it was a gradual process as he matured.

Honestly, be very happy that he's chewing stuff you can put out of reach. PickleDog chewed chair legs and skirting boards, as well as the usual tv remotes and mobile phones

It will end, but be aware he may well be tempted in adulthood too. Pickledog still can't resist a pencil. Everything else is safe. Pencils, not safe.

Mine grew out of it too... wouldn't dare touch food on the table now. But I hid in larder and scared the life out of her one day 😬
Pencils and nerf bullets are the only thing she might chew on now

Phew! Thanks for the reassurance. She does like a chair leg but they’re old and also pretty indestructible so I’m not too her up about that. We are getting new dining set when she’s grown out of it!

More hassle than they are worth aren't they

Following with interest. ChenDog joined us on Saturday aged 9 weeks - he's way too cute for his own good, but the chewing and biting on everything has been quite an eye opener

It’s definitely a gradual thing but at some point you realise that the puppy no longer grabs and runs off with EVERYTHING. I’m sure by about 8 months the worst was over. Mine is now 2.5 and the only things he still chews are pants. Everything else is either of no interest or will be carried but not chewed (anything made of wool, such as jumpers or my hat, or smelly trainers). I might find my good cashmere jumper has been dragged out of the flat and into the garden, but I no longer find shoes with holes in. Oh, plastic coat hangers are not safe either. But compared to it being everything it’s no problem at all!
Have you been training leave? You put a treat on your palm and close your hand over it and wait for them to stop nudging your hand and sitting down, then you praise them and give them the treat. Progress to adding the word leave. Then put the treat on the floor and cover it with your foot. Get further away from it. Then drop the treat - build up the difficulty until you can drop things on the floor and shout leave instead of trying to beat your dog in diving to grab it!

When she has something you dont want just put treats on the floor I say "thank you" she will drop the item and eat the treats.

If only it were that easy! We've tried this approach since pup was 8 weeks old, she'll far rather hang on to contraband than have a treat.

Luckily she's not interested in absolutely everything anymore like she was as a pup (she's 6 months tomorrow) so we don't have to move everything out of reach and she's pretty good at leave it . But if she gets something she considers good, she generally won't exchange for treats. I've never found any advice other than swap for treats so it's difficult to know what to do, and it's something I'd like cracked in case she picks up something dangerous.

@tizwozliz we had same with Snooppup. Ended up getting a behaviourist to help as he was guarding the contraband and couldn’t have cared about the treats. You need to fine the one thing that’s better than what they’ve got. In our case it’s ham. Still work to be done but much improved.
@3AndADog our house is still missing cushions and everything needs to be tidied away or it’s chewed. Snooppup is almost 14 months!

@tizwozliz

When she has something you dont want just put treats on the floor I say "thank you" she will drop the item and eat the treats.

If only it were that easy! We've tried this approach since pup was 8 weeks old, she'll far rather hang on to contraband than have a treat.

Luckily she's not interested in absolutely everything anymore like she was as a pup (she's 6 months tomorrow) so we don't have to move everything out of reach and she's pretty good at leave it . But if she gets something she considers good, she generally won't exchange for treats. I've never found any advice other than swap for treats so it's difficult to know what to do, and it's something I'd like cracked in case she picks up something dangerous.

It is that easy with many dogs. How does she know it is contraband? You will have reacted in some way to make the item she has more value than the item you are giving her.

Play toy swop a lot and that also helps with getting them to drop items. Have two toys and play with one with the dog, tug is best for this get high arousal and the dog engaged. Then still holding onto the toy let it go still and introduce the second toy animate the second toy and get the dog to play with that one. Practice getting the dog to release the higher value toy for the lower value toy.

If still having issues, teach drop the chirag patel method - this never fails if you are consistent especially with labradors. It is soooo simple it is magic.

Literally when your dog has nothing and in a quiet room just drop the best treats (your dog likes to work for food so use your food allowance for this) . Drop a treat and say "drop" after a few days of this your dog wil understand that drop means treats. If you do it enough it will actually condition the dog to react to the drop word.

When your dog has something in their mouth ask for drop they will eat the treat and also drop the item. It takes a bit of time and some consistency and also going back at times to just asking fro drop without an item. This even works with the most determined bull breeds who will not let go of anything ever.

If you have a true resource guarder you would never use treats initially but this would be more than the dog just running off with something

@PollyRoullson this is what we have been doing using the command Out - in Easy Peasy Puppy Squeasy. I think I need to go back to basics though as ‘Out’ has totally lost its effect and she has to see the treat in my hand - and there’s never a treat close enough!!

Contraband is stuff like plastic lids, bits of rubber, tissues basically things she finds pleasurable to chew, most recently the clean lid of a tub of lurpak. We do the counting game which is also chirag patel I think where you put a treat on the floor count one, another treat two etc. We just end up with 10 treats on the floor if she's got something she likes. When she was little she just swallowed the piece of rubber in her mouth as well as taking the treat (vet thought it would pass through but it reappeared in vomit 18 hours later at 2.30am!)

We were super vigilant for the first four months and swapped out anything he wasn't allowed with a chew toy/treat with a command of leave it/drop it and it seemed to click and over the last two months (pup is coming up to 11 months now) there are very few items we need to swipe away from him - he seems to have a good sense of what is fair game. He does get interested if we eg wear new slippers or big winter coat he hasn't seen before and he likes a good sniff and will sometimes attempt to mouth at it but a firm AH AH stops him. But we were really, really firm for his first few months (to the point of feeling exhausted and despondent at times) but really, really glad we did that now I can kick off shoes, leave TV remote, my glasses lying around, jumpers on sofa etc etc (I'm sure this is giving you a picture of all the things he USED to go for )

Im interested in why you dont use a foldable moveable puppy pen for times when you cannot watch her or need a break?

Bitter apple spray from Pets At Home was a lifesaver for us when my puppy was chewing everything. I think you can only order it online but I'd definitely recommend it!

You could also work on training "Leave" so you can head her off if you see her going for something she shouldnt and it's also very useful in a lot of situations.

@picklemewalnuts

Honestly, be very happy that he's chewing stuff you can put out of reach. PickleDog chewed chair legs and skirting boards, as well as the usual tv remotes and mobile phones

It will end, but be aware he may well be tempted in adulthood too. Pickledog still can't resist a pencil. Everything else is safe. Pencils, not safe.

I mean, that's fair enough. It's pretty much a stick!

@Colin56

Im interested in why you dont use a foldable moveable puppy pen for times when you cannot watch her or need a break?

Because it’s ALL the time, we can be sitting watching tv curled up with her and she’ll be trying to eat the cushion, my trouser leg, my watch. Anything available. So everything is put away until she stops! Also she goes bananas in a pen. Properly hates it.

@3AndADog OK!
Sounds full on. I jave used puppy pens a lot and find them great especially to help the puppy have its own downtime space. I start small though, a few minutes with food being fed there and a comfy bed and soon they start to go to the space to relax. Not for everyone though.

A dog trainer told my friend Tabasco sauce on anything she didn’t want chewed- not for me too messy, but it worked for her. She redecorated the kitchen /living room after six months when pup stopped chewing.

@Colin56 Oh sorry do you mean a crate? She does have a crate that she goes in for naps, but I couldn’t just put her in there any old time. The mouthing really is full on! I really miss having a blanket on the sofa!

Definitely train ‘out/drop/leave’ before you need to use it. So swapping one toy for another, one toy for a treat etc.
Do it at random times, and then leave the timing between her dropping the object and you giving the treat (for when you don’t have a treat immediately to band)

Don’t leave practising it until she has the forbidden stuff in her mouth, as it’ll never work.

[quote 3AndADog]@Colin56 Oh sorry do you mean a crate? She does have a crate that she goes in for naps, but I couldn’t just put her in there any old time. The mouthing really is full on! I really miss having a blanket on the sofa![/quote]
No just a mobile pen. Very easy to set up. Put a kong in it with treats to work off.
Its a tricky stage. I often substitute/swap with appropriate toys.