Chewing When At Home

[OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree]

Our labrador has started chewing stuff but only when we're at home. Any tips on how to stop this?

What's he chewing? Furniture, shoes, toys?

The obvious answer is to keep everything out of his reach and give him lots of dog appropriate chews instead.

How old? Is it inappropriate chewing? Our 7 month goldie will chew inappropriate items when he needs one of the following; poo/wee, food, play/walk.
If he is content he chews the various bones laying around the house.
Could also be a tooth bothering him?

Ddog is a big chewer and no socks, underwear, shoes or TV remotes are safe.
He does it when he is bored to get our attention as he has figured out that if he chews his own stuff nothing happens but if he chews ours we chase him to get it back. Trainer advised never chase him or grab the item but call him to you and swop for a treat. You can teach drop that way.
He is doing it less often now.

If he's only chewing in certain contexts, like when you're at home, then lets identify what's different as that's likely to be the cause.
Two possible reasons I can think of are either he has access to more areas and more inappropriate things to chew whilst you're at home? In which case, can you provide him with appropriate things to be chewing and make sure to give him verbal praise for choosing these things.
Or, he knows that if you're at home and he chews something he will get your attention? Even looking at him or saying 'oi, stop that' can be hugely rewarding for a dog that loves you and your attention may be massively reinforcing the behaviour. As above, make sure he's got appropriate things to be chewing (that are interesting enough for him to choose over a table leg) and give him lots of praise for choosing those things. Have a play around with different chew options to find out his preferences e.g., antlers, soaked kibble in a kong, frozen carrots, the list is endless. If he does start chewing something he shouldn't be, try to get his attention and give him something else to be doing, but don't get his attention by directly calling him otherwise he will soon learn, I chew the table leg, my owner calls me and gives me a chew. So instead, pretend you've found something really interesting in the other side of the room, bend down, facing away from him, and say 'ooh what's this over here', almost guaranteed he will leave the table leg to come and find out what you're doing at which point you can redirect him to something else.

@PetPositive He usuallt has full roam of downstairs (kitchen and living room). When we're eating, hes in the living room but with a treat. If we're changing our daughters nappy, he goes in the kitchen with a treat. He keeps stealing my daughters wooden blocks and chewing them, though he's now chewed one of her books.

He has his own toy box that we direct him to but still, he chews the blocks. We always tell him 'No!, get them back and he's sent to the kitchen for a 1 minute time out but do you think we should ignore him until he's bored?

Thankyou for your helpful post. The chewing only happens when we're at home.

@OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree sorry for the slow reply.
If you think about it in terms of learning theory, dogs repeat behaviours which get them some kind of reward (and that isn't necessarily what we might be thinking of as a reward). So for him, I suspect that either the blocks themselves are rewarding, and/or getting your attention when he picks them up is reinforcing this stealing behaviour.
If he has access to the blocks all the time but only chews them when you are there then I highly suspect it's the getting your attention that he's enjoying. Which is lovely in a way, that even you telling him 'no' is rewarding to him because he loves your attention that much.
So what does this mean for preventing the chewing; Firstly, don't give him attention for doing the wrong thing, of course this might be difficult if he's picked up something that you don't want chewed so prevention is going to be useful here, try and make sure your daughters toys are out of reach or that he's already got something to keep him entertained when her toys/books come out. Secondly; make sure you do reward him, with verbal praise, attention, pats, play with him etc when he picks up anything that he should be chewing/playing with. I know that this is a difficult adjustment to make, it's so easy to ignore and forget about our dogs when they're being well behaved and notice them when they start doing something we don't want them to be doing, but try to consciously check in and any time he's doing something good, even if it's settling in his bed and minding his own business, tell him what a good boy he is. Now that you know how powerful your attention is for rewarding and reinforcing his behaviours, make sure you're giving it to him for the things you want him to repeat!