Hi all,

We've had a complete disaster today!

My bitch is now just 12 months.  I got her at 4.5 months and she was very good, as her confidence grew she became a bit chewy and we have a few little 'modifications' on the walls as proof.  Today she has chewed two enormous holes in the wall of their 'dog room'!  For the past few weeks she's been chewing her bedding too and has destroyed two squishy beds and put holes in vet bed (something I didn't even know was possible).  My other dogs have been over this chewing by 12 months.  She has plenty of exercise, plenty of company) and plenty of play both with humans and dogs.  She seems a happy dog, if a little giddy (though that is certainly age-related!). 

Is there any chance this could be teething-related at 12 months?  She's back in her crate when left now, but I'm hoping we can get her out of it again soon!

Thanks,

Clare

LOL join the club! 3 holes in kitchen wall, window sills chewed, floor taken up, almost an entire couch ripped to pieces. I always say I wish dogs were born TWO years old as that seems to be when they start to settle and stop all this chewing and other teenage stuff. I have a 15 month old and I lock her in the hall (where she's already removed the flooring and there is nothing left to ruin) with toys or bones if I have to turn my back even for a few minutes, as the new (new as in Ebay) couch has already received a hole. So to me this sounds perfectly normal but I'd not expect it to be better already at 12 months. And as for vet beds -I have only got two dogs, other than the toys, that can have vet beds as they just chew them to shreds. And those two are both veterans. I'd love to find chew proof bedding but never have done.

Thanks!  I didn't think I'd had a particularly easy ride with my previous 4 dogs, but this is new on me! Glad it's nothing I need to particularly worry about (well apart from the holes in my wall). She's clearly a little madam :-D

> put holes in vet bed (something I didn't even know was possible). 

It certainly is...my 7.5 year old chews her vet bed, as does her 3 11 month old daughters. I can just about hang them on the line!! I say that I have vet bed around the holes!!...lol

I never knew about the possibility of chewing vet bed until 9 - 10 years ago when my Lexi started turning it into doilies ;)

I have personally found the worst chewing stages is 12 - 18 months, just when you think they have stopped.

>when my Lexi started turning it into doilies ;-)

ROFLMAO!  I love it that we are all accustomed to such terrible tendencies.  I will never forget leaving a year old dog while I popped to the corner shop.

I had been decorating, and when I got back she had started to strip the wallpaper off the kitchen wall.  (I was decorating the bedroom though.)  She had also taken exception to corners.  The corners of walls were always chewed to a rounded off shape!

> I have personally found the worst chewing stages is 12 - 18 months

Tara was a really bad chewer until she had her first season at around 12/13 months - then her chewing just stopped dead and she never chewed anything again :) :)

My 1st GSD was a selective chewer till he was nearly 2. He favoured the stair carpet! we had no carpet on the bottom 2 steps and the top step, once he got rid of the carpet he started on the wood of the step. We didn't replace it straight away - kept telling ourselves 'its a stage, it will stop!' - but he suddenly grew out of it before he removed too much of the stairs (the teeth marks and missing bits are still there - now hidden by carpet again!)
I worked part time with variable hours, he was fine no matter if I was out for ½ hr or 3 hours the first time each day but if I dared to go out a second time - even for 10 minutes - he started chewing!!!

I read this thread this morning & thought how lightly we had got away with the chewing stage of my youngster. I then looked up and said dog was chewing the skirting board!!!!!!

Tatty ead
I too found my GSDs found stairs irresistible. After my first GSD ate first the stair carpet and then the actual stair, next time we had a GSD pup (and the time after that) my husband made an MDF 'sleeve' to fit over the bottom stair. They could chew it as much as they liked. It worked like a charm and came off and got thrown out a couple of years later. The MDF was so heavy it didn't need anything to keep it in place. Mind you the first time it happened I was quite pleased as I HATED that carpet...

After my first GSD ate first the stair carpet and then the actual stair, next time we had a GSD pup (and the time after that) my husband made an MDF 'sleeve' to fit over the bottom stair. They could chew it as much as they liked. It worked like a charm and came off and got thrown out a couple of years later.

Great idea! Similar to what my husband did for our cooker. I had a young Golden Retriever who chewed all the knobs off it, which eventually lead to the cooker short circuiting the entire house on Christmas Eve whilst I was cooking the Christmas dinner (we don't celebrate on Christmas Day) -it was a bit difficult to do anything without the knobs, and it resulted in a new cooker having to be bought. So for the new one my husband made a wooden lid, like an upside down box, which just lifts off. The knobs are covered and no harm can be done.

So much innovation comes from owning puppies LOL. 

I was quite pleased as I HATED that carpet...
ours was past its best as it 'came with the house' and was not as urgent to replace as the one in the sitting room so we just delayed getting a new one till he had finished, neither the middle GSD or current one showed the slightest interest in stairs or carpets thank goodness

Every single one of my shepherd pups has had it in for that bottom stair !!! My lovely boy I lost loved it so much he used to sleep on it as a pup.

my pups cant get to the stairs. thank doG, but they have eaten all my floors. Well all the floor covering anyway. I have had to replace everything. I now have puppy proof tiles in the living room almost puppy proof tiles in the kitchen and indestructible tiles in the conservatory.  However since I stopped them eating the floor they are now working their way up and I have a dining chair with no seat and they have carefully rounded the corners on my coffee table. presumably so I don't hurt myself when I bump into it.

If I slip my feet out of a pair of shoes both are gone in the blink of an eye and I don't usually even see them go. They steal pens and pencils out of my bag and seem to be able to open the childproof cupboard where the bin is kept to get rubbish out. They took and destroyed one of my most expensive dog training CDs yesterday. The fabric dog beds have holes in and large amounts of stuffing missing and my Grandmothers chair has had its legs re-carved. Its a good job I love the little monsters :)

My GSD went through a chewing phase at this age too. The only things he ever chewed was the remote control, and the windowsill and both were after we thought he had grown out of it. I think they go through a phase and he was definitely out of it by 18 months or so. Now he can have even the softest flimsiet chew toys and he doesn't manage to break them!

Edited to add: Frozen raw chicken wings are great for keeping them occupied and not chewing!

Thanks all, I guess she's pretty normal.... that's not a great deal of compensation for the massive hole in my wall though!

As for the frozen chicken wings - I have Labs, chicken wings are devoured after one crunch frozen or otherwise!!  Trotters last a little longer, but I personally don't like to leave them with bones when unsupervised.  She'll have to make do with her kongs and nylabones :-)

Sounds like our 12month old Tervueren ( Tilly the Terrible) ....she's just destruction on four legs !  - she's eaten the dog room wall, the mop bucket, the door frame, the back door, the kitchen table legs, the dining room chairs, every bit of bedding I put in her crate, the sides and door of the garden shed, the fence panels ....and one memorable afternoon we found her happily trying to drag a huge section of the kitchen kick boards into her crate !

Yvonne