So I have this 7 month old husky/german shepherd mix pup, Rex.  He is more like a husky than anything.  He chews and chews and chews and chews.  We have tried rawhides, chew toys, and Nylabones to curb him from chewing up the house, but it's not working.  He chewed up a leg of my dining room chairs and this was right after I upscaled (sanded and re-stained) the chair.  He has chewed up a new blue metallic 360 controller, a cord, the telephone, and the list goes on.  We have even tried keeping everything out of sight that we could think of, but he is a decent size puppy and can still get it.  He even knows how to break out of his metal crate when we tried to crate him while we are at work.  The kicker with that crate is that it has a plastic bottom.  We kept it covered with a pet pillow that he chewed apart, followed by an old soft blanket which he ruined, and then that day he ruined the blanket he actually chewed the 1/2 of the plastic bottom of the crate apart and ended up cutting his tongue and we had to take him to the vet that night because it was so swollen.   I saw that the pet stores have that anti-chew spray, but I don't want to spray things with that, because I don't know what's in it.  Any suggestions....he is getting fixed here in a couple weeks so we are hoping that it "calms" him down a little bit, but we are going insane in the meantime!!!!  Oh and here is Captain Chewer.  I don't think I've showed you all a photo of him.  EDIT....I've tried to downsize that photo, but it is appearing in here as being huge.  My apologizes!!!

 

 

 

Definitely getting him fixed will calm him down some.  (Your dog is adorable by the way!)

 

At this point all I can say is that I sympathize.  I have a 7 month old Silkchon (silky terrior/bichon mix, but definitely more TERRORier) named Ramona who is a complete punk.  She chews EVERYTHING, and despite being small that little bitch can seriously destroy everything in site if you take your eyes off her.  She even almost completely ate my glasses (had to buy new ones and new lenses) and then somehow got a hold of them again and nom nom'd up the lenses again (can't replace them under insurance till next year lol).  Cords, controllers, seriously nothing is off limits.

 

I don't know if it's just being a puppy or what, but I know it's not boredom.  She goes for walks, has tons of toys and is certainly active.

 

I'd try to avoid the anti-chew spray, and if you do use it only use it on essential stuff (like your table for example). 

 

Good luck to you!  If you figure something out let me know!! 

 

 

They need tough discipline when they're this young. If the pup had stayed with it's mom, she would have nipped his ear when he goofed up. As a pet owner, you have to do the equivalent. Keep spray bottles of water around the house. When they chew something they're not supposed to, you need to act upset, loud and spray them in the face. If you just spray them without acting upset, they will see it as a game and just open their mouths to drink.

 

Pups also get abandonment issues when they're left alone and act out by destroying things. If no one is in the house all day, it may be best to drop the pup off at a friend or family's house.

 

It sucks when they're young and cute, but they need guidance and discipline. Sometimes that means you have to put a little fear into them. If you catch them about to gnaw on something and they back off from doing it (after they see you seeing them), praise and pet them.

 If you catch them about to gnaw on something and they back off from doing it (after they see you seeing them), praise and pet them.

 

This 100%.  You need to exercise "positive reinforcement".  Praising them highly when they do something they are supposed to.

I use the shock collars, and when they start chewing on something they shouldnt they get shocked, once they get shocked then you can just use the warning tone and they will stop. They get the message pretty quick but when they are left alone they can still chew something up, I just try to keep an eye on them as much as possible when people are around and give them the warning when they start to chew something they shouldnt, just be consistent in what you do. I like the collars because they can be a good distance away and you can give them a warning tone or a shock, I usually do a tone once and then if they go back to it a short shock. We have a 6 mo old boxer and he has chewed up some stuff but only once. The thing is you have to catch them in the act for it to work, I dont punish him after the fact.

 

Also when you first start with the collar if you choose that you have to give them a shock the first time otherwise the warning tone doesnt mean anything.

 The thing is you have to catch them in the act for it to work, I dont punish him after the fact.

Ditto. It really is the best way.

Double agreed also.   The only problem is actually catching them do it.  Sneaky little things they are! 

Siren I have two dogs, one is a border collie the other is a pit mix. I had my border collie since he was six weeks and he probably chewed for almost a year and half. Then one day he just stopped. He was crate trained, and he stayed in his crate  however on the off chance I was drunk and not paying attention to him he would chew up anything he can get a hold of. He doesn't chew anymore is is overall a good dog, he is able to stay out on  his own. My pit on the other hand I kept her in a cage like yours with a plastic bottom and she managed to break out every time. I even used zip ties to reinforce it but she still powered through it, and if she is left alone she will find things to tear up. I did use that spray when Jack was little however it didn't work for us at all. I sprayed everything I could think of and he still chewed. Sookie however she is getting better, but I did buy a plastic kennel, and she managed to break out of that one, however I got like 6 bungee cords and she can no longer escape. also make sure not to leave your dog locked in a room, Sookie tore the carpet up from the floor and i had to get it replaced. I honestly believe crate training is the greatest thing in the entire world. Just figure out a way to keep him in his crate, I honestly believe being out of reach of things to chew for that amount of time will condition him to not even think about chewing stuff up.

I got zoe to stop chewing by putting Daves Insanity hot sauce on the things she chewed. It ended rather quickly. Its been a year now since shes done it. Now if i can only stop the cat from going spaz on my TP

....I even used zip ties to reinforce it but she still powered through it,.....

 

We tried to zip ties too on the side of the crate that opened up and it didn't matter...it sounds like our dogs would be a match made in heaven!!!   We are thinking of getting baby gates and blocking him in the hallway with water and food, because we can't keep him the metal crate all day.  At 7 months he weighs just about 50 pounds and he is long and tall...so he doesn't really have much room to move.  (We have a large breed crate)  He is not a jumper and the baby gates come up high enough that I don't think we would have to worry about him getting out.

 

Saturday was awful for Rex.  We were out most of the day and we came home to a huge mess that included our wedding album being torn apart and some of the pictures chewed up.  When we got married, we didn't hire a photographer and just placed disposable cameras around at the tables so that everyone could take pictures and we collected them at the end of the day.  So we don't have any backups of the photos  He also chewed up a rug and pooped on the floor.  We even gave him two rawhides and I bought one of those Kong things that are recommended for chewers and it was no use.  Of course he doesn't do this stuff when we are around, so we can't discipline him when he does it.  We use to flip him over on his back and firmly put a hand on his chest so that he learned he was not dominant, because we had that issue a few months ago.  That worked and I would like to do that again, but it's hard to do it when we aren't around when he does these things.

 

Thank you for the suggestions.  I guess I have to treat him like I do the boys with reinforcement and positive praise.  There are some things I am going to try like the water bottle, because he hates getting sprayed in the face with water.  (We found that out this summer)  Then praise when he backs off.  It won't be too much longer and his balls are gone..so hopefully the suggestions in this thread will work for the time being.

Neutering helps dogs immensely with this sort of thing. However, while you may think a dog isn't bored because you take it for walkies etc - some dogs need a LOT of stimulation. What you need to do is teach it that it doesn't get attention 24/7, and that sometimes it's just "chill time". Usually dogs also chew when they're stressed and don't understand the chain of command. You may be able to boss your dog around, but a stressed dog will chew, dig and bite when it's trying to assert itself because it's not 100% sure you're in charge of the pack.

 

Positive reinforcement training is the best way to training, but don't believe the "dogs don't remember what they did" bullshit. If you find chewed items around the house when you get home, I always gave my dogs a swat on the BUTT (never the face) with the item and had a time out corner for them, basically. Never time out them in the kennel IMO, because that's supposed to be their safe place, and making it a stressful location can lead to more destructive behaviour.

Here is an example: if your dog chews something up and in the past you have yelled or corrected him after it was chewed, let’s say the trash, your dog now thinks it is bad for that trash to be on the floor. Because your correction did not come at the right time, your dog may not understand that the act of chewing the trash is the unwanted behavior, he may only think that it's bad to have trash on the floor. Therefore, the dog chews the trash, sees trash on floor and suddenly it's BAD. He slinks away or displays submissive signs because he knows you are going to be upset and he will be punished. Yet, he chews the trash again because he does not know that CHEWING the trash is the unwanted behavior. Your dog knows you are mad, but unless you caught him in the act, he does not know why. Consequently, if you throw a piece of paper at the trash, miss and the paper falls to the floor, your dog may bark, as he knows trash on the floor is not in compliance with how the world is supposed to be. He will bark to alert you that something is out of place. When you pick the paper up and throw it away in the trashcan, order will have been restored to the universe and they will settle down.

 

Tip: Don't use your dog’s name when correcting him. His name should only be used for positive reinforcement.

 

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/whybaddog.html

 

If I walk into the backyard, the dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they haven't seen me for days. If I stay in the backyard, they quickly become bored with me. If I go inside and return after 10-15 minutes, my dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they haven't seen me in days. They don't remember that I was in the backyard just a few minutes ago.

 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201005/dogs-dont-remember

You linked one of 80 billion dog sources that have conflicting information on dog's learned behaviour, especially with discipline. Technically I could be wrong, but given the dogs I've owned over the years, the reality of them not knowing they've done wrong is BS. Maddie has displayed behaviour of knowing she did something wrong for things I didn't even discipline her for to begin with, but she had done something she shouldn't have. I came home and got to discover chewed wires for the first time (and last time) in my life, as she never displayed chewing behaviour before, ever.

 

So, shrug.

All of us could entirely be wrong. The last paragraph I fully agree with, though and shows me a dogs limited memory. All of my dogs have acted like that and I don't feel it's right for me to punish them for something they probably don't even remember doing. I believe a dog reads body language and takes it's cues from that. If I come home and see my expensive stuff all torn up, I can guarantee that my body language is off the charts and my dog knows to stay away from me. Even if it was the cat that did it.

 

I think we humanize pets way too much and expect them to act or learn like we do. Animal is gonna animal.

Oh yeah, body language for sure, but when I'm excited to see my dog and am showering her with praise and love, and she's doing the "AM I IN TROUBLE AM I IN TROUBLE" dance then I know something's up, lol.