Now 9 1/2 months old Jack is chewing up his vet bed, we remove it when he gets up in the morning as he wants to play with it, he has holes in it and chews through it. We bought him a bed, as soon as he got it he had a hole chewed into it!
Every soft toy he has had has had to be removed for the same reason.
Will he grow out of this? What can we give him as an alternative?
Any suggestions please.
Karen.

I would say better his own stuff than the sofa/something expensive of yours! :D          

We provide our golden with kongs, cyber-chew-thingies ( I forget the brand - but they help keep the teeth clean), plastic bottles, soft toys (that she can shred under our supervision), tightly rolled up newspaper that she can shred and so far we've been quite successful in limiting the damage a 10 month old pup can cause! So in my experience I'd say try and provide a multitude of things for him to have a good gnaw at - there's plenty of undestructable products on the market.

I'm sure someone else will be able say but I'm sure they grow out of these things........some day.....:rolleyes:

Thanx for that, but it's probably all the stuff we are doing. Wasn't sure it was appropriate to allow the chewing up of the soft stuff though, hopefully you are right and he will grow out of it. :-)
Karen

I remember Nips having a final sort of of a chew mania at that age. He'd actually cut down on the chewing only to have what I now think was a final positively demented burst of it. Right now (at a year old) he has his own personal selection of permitted favourites and is pretty safe. It may be that Jack will do similar.

This is classic 'teenage' behaviour. He's just the right age. Puberty affects dogs as well as humans. When dogs chew, they release endorphins in the brain, these are 'feel good' chemicals. In the same way that some humans can become addicted to excercise, which releases the same chemicals, some dogs can become addicted to chewing, particularly if left on their own for long periods. They chew to relieve either distress or boredom. Try to make sure he is given plenty of mental stimulation and human interaction and he should grow out of this phase ok.

Might be a bit strange but here's what I did.  :)

When my oldest 2 were the only dogs in the house, I trained them not to 'kill the babies' simply because I got tired of spending money only to pick up fluff 5 minutes later.  Each time they started to get a bit rough with the soft toy I'd tell them 'be nice to the baby' or 'don't kill the baby' and take it away.  I'd give it back to them at a later time and go through the whole process again.  It took them a bit but they did catch on.  :)