I have a male lab and since ive had him he will at any given time when he knows your not looking eat the plaster on my walls and pull the paper off. I tried most sprays and bitter apple, all he does is go find a place its not on and if he cant find one he will eat the lino the wood and anything else he can find. Hes now 9mths and is about to have his opp, can anyone give me any help on how to stop him tearing into my home.    

What is your daily routine? How much exercise does he get? Do you do any sort of training or socialisation with him?

I don't have much faith in anti chew sprays or preparations and I don't use cages, I'd rather make sure the dog is happy and has other things to occupy their mind. I have found that a tired dog is a well behaved dog, and when a pup becomes destructive I up their exercise/training and it always works. At 9 months he still can't have unlimited exercise but often training or dog clubs are actually better at tiring them out. Raw knuckle bones and filled kongs are also great for satisfying his need to chew :-)

he gets a lot of exercise and has so many chews and toys, he is very spoilt as there is only me and him at home. Today he walked miles and was very tired when we got home but it didnt last for very long.  He is the apple of my eye but i just cant seem to stop him destroying everything in his path, as for training in dog school which all my dogs have gone to, i cant find one that does it on the weekend afternoons they are all in the morning, which i cant manage at all. He is quite well behaved when we go out and listens to my commands very easily, well most of the time, he just likes to chew everything hes not suppose to.

He is just a puppy and he is a breed that is known for chewing. Is he left alone, suppose he must be or you would stop him, when you have to pop out put him in a cage to which you have introduced him slowly. Oh and please do not over exercise him, at his age about 45 minutes a day is about right as he still has a lot of growing up to do and for that reason I would not be castrating him for a while yet either, let him grow up first.

I have one Malinois bitch, Rio, who went through this stage at pretty much the same age -except she went one step further and chewed holes all the way down to the brick work, in not one but two different houses -as we moved during this period. She only ever did it when bored, and she did grow out of it. She wouldn't DREAM of doing something like this now and has even stayed in a nice hotel without causing any damage whatsoever. The trick was to give her something better to chew as in real bones. Her daughter Roxie was much the same at the same age except she went for a window sill, you could always tell the weather by the state of the windowsill as she would only do it when it rained and she hadn't been out as much as usual, so sheer boredom. She trained herself out of it by instead finding she could open a cupboard, empty it of pots and pans and carry them around -and she wasn't able to chew them up! So in a nutshell I'd say it's a case of providing something much better to chew than the wall. Chews and toys will never be as good as real bones.

(Oh and from Rio's second litter I had to keep two daughters. When Dot and Fame got to the same stage they ignored both the wall and the windowsill, instead they learned how to open drawers when bored -drawers without handles! Have NO idea how they did it!- and take stuff out of them to play with. So we now have lock on everything LOL.)

> he gets a lot of exercise

As he's still a puppy he doesn't need to be walking for miles, but training and playing with other dogs will tire him out more. Can you take a ball or a favourite toy with you when you go out and teach him to fetch it, then to find it in longer grass? You could then start combining that with little bits of heelwork and stays - get him using his brain.

> has so many chews and toys

What are they? They have to be more rewarding than the things you don't want him to have. Raw marrow bones, knuckle bones and tasty filled kongs are brilliant.

> i cant find one that does it on the weekend afternoons they are all in the morning

Can't you find an evening club? Most clubs I know run in the evenings.

How much time does he spend alone?

> when you have to pop out put him in a cage

I disagree. This pup is bored and will be even more bored in a cage, it may stop him destroying the house but it won't cure the problem or make the dog any happier. We also don't know how long he is left alone.

we do lots of brain excercises with our bc pup and that tires her out much quicker and for a lot longer than physical excercises, such as hide and seek, obediance training, i hide small treats around the house and let her go and find them and then when she finds them too easily i hide them underneath things and just make her work harder for treats, she has a good bone to chew and plenty of toys and we still take her for a run in the park and her destruction of the house is very minimul

First thing is vet check as it's called pica really if he really is "eating" the walls. Although to me you've already said the answer, when you're not watching him!!

Classic attention seeking, use houseline and give cool, calm time outs when he does it. Most labs eat through chew deterrents so that's probably the reason these haven't worked,that and hismotivation and reward pattern work for him!! Simples!!

My current puppy (5 months) is a nightmare for chewing, eating and generally destroying things, and I thought I'd never known one as bad as her ... and then I remembered the one that ate the plaster by his bed down to the brickwork, and the one that destroyed the architrave around the doorframe, and the one that destroyed more kitchen table drawer-knobs than the hardware shop could keep up with ...

These things have only ever happened when the puppy's been left unattended in a non-puppy-proofed place. My fault every time.

I disagree. This pup is bored and will be even more bored in a cage, it may stop him destroying the house but it won't cure the problem or make the dog any happier. We also don't know how long he is left alone.
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Well, of course, you do not put a pup in a cage before you have accustomed it to it and you also provide a bone or stuffed kong - also you do not leave for more than the odd half hour or so.

I do feel this is a case where the owner is not considering how young this dog is, too young to be castrated, too young to be left, too young to be taken miles for walks. Think his care needs a re-think.

> you could always tell the weather by the state of the windowsill as she would only do it when it rained and she hadn't been out as much as usual,

Slightly off topic - I take it then, that Malis don't like the rain? Have to say we've found Rue doesn't. But my hairy Belgian cross will stand out in the garden in a downpour for an hour or more, perfectly happy, with the rain forming natural gutters on his top coat.

Slightly off topic - I take it then, that Malis don't like the rain?

Oh they don't care so much (unlike the Papillons who will hide rather than go out if it rains or even HAS rained and is wet on the ground outside!) but I do. :) Let several wet Malis indoors and you get mud everywhere up the walls -beats me WHERE it comes from, but they always get covered in it! So if it rains hard, they stay in more, if it rains a bit, no problem.

I suggest you start keeping a dog diary.  It can be very easy for owners to ease off the management and training a little at 9 months as the puppy starts to show signs of the sensible dog he'll eventually (hopefully) grow into!

I suspect that you'll quickly notice the patterns associated with hunger, boredom, tiredness etc if you note down exactly what you and he do all day.  Write down feeding times and how much time you spend with him on particular activities such as training and exercise.  Also note down when he wees etc

Do be prepared to adjust the way you manage his time (and yours) as I expect that's where you find the answer :)  Good luck

As others have said he's much too young to neuter as you'll just leave him stuck in this baby phase forever.  If you wait until he's two or more you'll have a very well adjusted sensible boy and you'll wonder why you ever thought castration necessary!

I missed the neutering bit!! Please don't sendhim for his op. he is too young for lots of reasons a main reason being the effect of testostrone on bone developement. He stills needs this otherwise you run the risk of a very tall out of proportion dog. Also leaves you with whatever behaviour are present at the time. Bitof a sweeping statement but I have found that early neutering really does seem to leave a permanent puppy forthe nexy 10-15 years.

Not saying don't neuter just pick your time, would another 3 months be so bad to wait and work on training? Usually hormonal driven behaviours at this stage are easly resloved as most revolve around humping or testing of the rules. Which your boy is already doing byeating walls and flooring!! Attention seeking won't go away by taking away his nuts!! Training will do wonders forit though!! Your working on the wrong end of the dog!! ; )

> testing of the rules. Which your boy is already doing byeating walls and flooring!! Attention seeking

Do you think eating the walls and floor are 'testing the rules' or 'attention seeking'? I'm genuinely curious :-)  I would say they are behaviours of a bored dog, not one that knows its wrong to eat the wall but is pushing the boundaries?

Chaumsong, I know you didn't ask me but I think that at this age many of these behaviours come from the same place and are rooted in any or all of the following: excitement, testosterone, under stimulation, over tiredness etc.  There is a danger in using the word boredom as many owners know this as a human emotion and might assume that as their dog is reasonably busy then it cannot be bored.  In fact I think a lot of owners just forget that puppies need most things little and often. 

To know precisely what is triggering the behaviour might be useful and I suspect that keeping a diary will show it pretty quickly but in the meantime it's worth looking at what is going on at the exact time.  Does the dog do it when you are watching?  Does he grab at bits of wall and wallpaper in passing?  What do you say when he does it?  Is he targeting a patch near the door, or near his bed?  Does he do it when he's excited?  Answers to these questions will also give some valuable clues as to the cause.

My youngest pup would mindlessly chew the bench leg as he was nodding off.  He never did it when he was properly awake or with any real intent so we used to keep a chew toy handy for swaps to save the leg!  He taught us that he needed this sleep habit so we'd always give him something to munge in his crate too.  It was a phase, and it soon passed, but he soon replaced it with other challenges for us to solve!!  (The wood pile is still not safe from my Jenga playing woof :) )

I have found a puppy pen is far better than a cage at this age. They can move around but are still confined to a smaller area than the whole room. You can also keep pups/dogs away from things they can't eat.

I had one that ate through 2 walls (plasterboard walls) so had to find a way of stopping the chewing when I was out.

When a dog does any behaviour the outcome governs whether it repeats the behaviour. No dog "knows" not to eat walls what happens is dog sniffs wall probably has something nice smelling on there dog licks works it way up to nibbling at which point owner turns round and reacts. Dog gets double whammy, nice taste/smell from wall and owners full attention. Dog repeats behaviour, gets intensified owner response. Dog learns to get owners attention lick/nibble wall. Works for dog whether owner present or not! As at some point owner returns usually hoicks dog over to wall pointing etc so dog learns to get owner back quicker chew wall!! Happens at lot at 10 months as second teething phase, which most owners miss combined with hormonal influence.