# 1.5 year old won't stop chewing on things



## bdavis86 (Jun 9, 2008)

We have a 1.5 year old female who will NOT stop chewing on things. She loves to go after the blinds, coffee table, wood frame around the screen doors. We give her exercise, stimulation, and she even has the other animals to play with but she constantly chews on stuff...even when there are bones on the floor. We've tried the apple spray, but it doesn't phase her. How can we make her stop chewing??? She's destroying the house!


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Why not attach her to a lead and then attach that lead to you while in the house. This will keep her from destroying your things and you can work on some obedience at the same time.

What type of bones are you using?

Have you tried bully sticks? Marrow bones? These seem to keep pups interests longer.

What are you doing when you catch her in the act of chewing?


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

If you mean she's doing this when you aren't home - buy a crate. It will keep her safe from herself - some day she might try chewing on an electrical cord.


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## bdavis86 (Jun 9, 2008)

She's chewed on things while we're gone, so now we crate her since she can't handle being free by herself. Now, she's getting more daring and doing it while we're home. We could be in the bathroom or doing something in some other area of the house and she'll start chewing. She has plenty of toys and bones, not to mention the other dog and cats to chew on. The bones we are giving her are those big knuckle bones and she likes those, but even when they are on the floor, she'll still chew on the vertical blinds and the wood.


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## Zisso (Mar 20, 2009)

I feel your pain!! 

I have a girl that still chews on occassion. I have to keep her mentally stimulated throughout the day. That includes anything I can think of: Basic OB(come, heel, sit, stay, down, up/stand), daily routine (excercise) games of fetch, 'bring it', 'get your toy', 'set it here', 'roll over', 'shake', 'other hand', 'sit pretty', 'focus', and even after all of this she is still ready for more. We usually play fetch 2-3x's a day and we walk for no less than an hour at the park (usually more)!! I agree with everyone else in that if you can't tether her to you, she should be crated like when you are at work or running errands. My girl is just sooo high energy that if I give her a chance to be bored she will destroy things.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

Your dog has too much freedom. 

My motto is this -- my dogs have to EARN their freedom. This may sound very strict, but I want to set them up for success. If they can't get to blinds and the coffee table, then they can't chew them. 

I would back all the way up and treat this dog as a young pup. Sometimes it happens that our dogs lose their skills (whether it's chewing or housebreaking). Sometimes, they never had skills to begin with, and we simply gave them more freedom than they could handle. Either way, we need to back up and treat them like 8 week old puppies. Crate your pup. Tether her to you some times.

Other times, create a place in your home where you can provide her a bed (assuming she won't tear that apart. If she does, then no bed) and that you can tether her to something sturdy and safe (I use my fireplace hearth for my pups). Then provide her one or two sturdy toys and a bully stick. Then just leave her be. Check in on her to make sure that she's not destroying the toys and potentially creating a choking hazard. But don't interact with her. 

And other times, set up a safe place using x-pens and baby gates. 

This gives you four SAFE places that your dog can be that she can't tear apart your home, but she's not getting into trouble. 

When she is quiet and playing with her toys, *occasionally* walk by and drop a high value treat in front of her and tell her "good toy." Or give her a favorite toy and tell her "good toy." That's it. Don't chat with her. No gushy emotions. Just drop the treat or new toy and walk by. You want your dog to be able to be independent and capable of hanging out without you around. Just cruise by, reward good behavior and leave. 

You need to teach your pup that *toys* are things she should be playing with/chewing on -- not everything else in the house.

Your dog shouldn't have any freedom in the house. But if some reason, you find her munching on the blinds, then do NOT react. Simply clip a leash on her, lead her toward her x-pen. Toss a treat and/or a high value toy in there and tell her to play with her toys.

Why do you not want to react (much less overreact)? My guess is that your girl is getting a lot of attention for eating your house. Touching is attention, so by clipping a leash on her and LEADING her away, you're not touching her while she's doing something that you don't want to reward (eating the blinds). You do want to reward her being in her safe zone (the x-pen) and playing with her toys; thus, the treat.

High value toys are new toys... or they're toys that your dog LOVES that she doesn't get to play with often. MY dogs have toys that are lying on the floor all of the time. I also have a basket of toys high on a chest of drawers that they can see but can't get to. Those are the super-best toys. They ALWAYS want to play with those. They're the high value toys. I use those for important rewards, to upgrade (when my puppy has snagged the remote control off the coffee table -- where we shouldn't have left it --and I want to upgrade it for a great toy), and similar.

Get yourself some wonderful toys that your dog thinks are really high value. It doesn't matter if you think they're the best. She has to think they're excellent. Get some treats that she adores that you only use on these sorts of occasions. This way, once she starts to EARN her freedoms, she will have some lapses... you will be able to REDIRECT her immediately toward stuff she really likes. 

But in the interim, she needs to lose her freedom. Start over. When she is tethered to you, she should have a toy and a chew. If she starts to chew on anything else, you can catch her in the act and redirect her. That's how we train our dogs NOT to chew in the first place. Is it time consuming and rather a hassle? Yes. Is it worth it? Yep.

If your dog shows no signs of separation anxiety, then this is likely just a matter of her learning bad behaviors. So we just have to train her better behaviors. 


Good luck.


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