Labrador retriever puppy chewing and chewing

[scbelleatheart]

We tried the kong toys & found they do last...but our dog lost interest.
We bought a TireBiter Tire from Petsmart-she really likes to play with it & it has held up very well

The Tire Biter sounds good. I'll have to look. Our lab is 5 and she doesn't chew any more but she loves to drag out anything out her doggy door that fits to the outside. She has 5 acres to roam inside her electronic perimeter but she still loves to drag everything she thinks we might find interesting to the porch! Only if she can't come in and sleep with the cats!
It's amazing the info you find on the Dis!

 

[JMLBrats]

make sure you buy the extra big, hard nyla bones. -they are very pricey and hard to find but they do last for a long time. Those were the best for my Golden when he was a puppy-and he was a bigggg time chewer. Try hand feeding so that you are in control of his food intake and the speed of it. Some people I know buy the giant bones at the supermarket or butcher (I am forgetting the name of them right now) but they are real cow bones-be sure to cook them first-they smell bad when cooking but it's very important for them to be cooked!

sorry if this has been suggested before but I didn't have time to read the replies.

Oh and just reading some of the other replies real quick...be sure to crate him when you are not there to watch....if you get a nice sized comfortable crate, put a blanket or huge pillow (I know he might chew that up), some water (make sure you secure the water in a VERY heavy bowl or secure it the side so he can't knock it over, and a nyla bone (which is safe to leave him with), he will like his crate and think of it as his little private den.

 

[Nancy F]

I own an Optical business. And whenever someone comes in with their glasses all chewed up... I ask them the breed of the dog. 9 out 0f 10 times it's going to be a Lab.
Nancy

 

[JMLBrats]

another thing I just thought of...my dog also liked to play w/stuffed animals a lot. Yes, of course they didn't last very long-some more than others....he really enjoyed them and actually I wish I knew the name of it but there are a couple of companies now that make "stuffed animals" for dogs that are suppossed to be indescructible-they are pricey but well worth it if they live up to their promise IMO. Maybe someone else will know the name....

 

[housemouse]

I've got a big dog that chewed the bottom corner off a new dresser in my bedroom when she was a puppy. I ended up buying soup bones and freezing them to give to her to chew on. Those did the trick for her.

 

[DoBug]

BTDT!!

Exercise til exhausted. We found a college student who jogged 3 miles/day 3X a week with her. I tried it myself and tripped over her, did a somersault and landed in the street the first time. The second time I sprained my ankle. Not for me.

Also doggy daycare (not a budget rec I know). But it wears them out. Find a good place that doesn't encourage bad habits like jumping.

She ate almost entirely thru the stretcher bar of our nice coffee table after a ball got stuck under there. good thing she's beautiful and really sweet or she'd have been dead. kidding

good luck, they grow out of it - mostly.

 

[diesel]

We buy the soup bones from the butcher and freeze them. This will keep our dog occupied for at least an hour getting the marrow out. Don’t cook the bones. Freeze them raw. We then reuse the bones by stuffing them with peanut butter and other treats.

Good luck. It does get better. My lab is 5 and is at such a great age. Still a little bit puppy but much calmer.

Trainers always say a good dog is a tired dog.

 

[Mickey527]

WE also have a black lab who loves to chew. We adopted her from FL in 2010 when we were there on vacation to WDW. Best trip to PetCo we ever made, she is an exceptional dog. We went in to buy a turtle for my grandson.
We crate her when we go out becaues she loves to chew the walls and baseboards. Her favorite toy to chew is LEGOS. No matter what we buy her if there is a lego on the floor she finds it.
We have lots of toys made from the KONG material. Some are outside and some are in. She never walks around without some toy in her mouth.
We tried the indestructible stuffed animals. The only thing guaranteed on those is that the squeeker will always work. She destroyed the toy in less than 10 minutes.
One thing we think is funny is the way she "buries" her toys and food. She carries her stuff around and will hop on the couch and "dig" the cushion away from the back and bury her toys under the cushions. I have found so many toys and pizza crusts (her favorite) buried under my cushions.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I have a chewer too and she will turn 1 this month. I was hoping that a miracle would happen and as soon as she turned one she would instantly stop cheweing! She likes to chew wood and has managed to chew the siding of our house, the deck, desks, bedframe, shoes, denim, etc. The bitter apple spray stopped working for us and soon became a treat for her!!! I find the elk antlers that I pick up at a specialty dog store has really helped, she can't get through it as quickly as all the other toys and it keeps her attention longer than the Kong and nylabones. I feel so bad putting her in a kennel when we are gone but as soon as she stops chewing she will be out!

 

[lucigo]

We have had labs, but currently have an Aussie. We taught him to catch a frisbee and any chance we get we go out and throw it for a while. Waiting for the bus in the morning...throw the frisbee. Talking on the phone? throw the frisbee. He considers it his "job" and he loves it. As long as he can do his job he doesn't get bored and eat everything we own!

 

[ceecee]

My labs still use their crate at night and they are 5 and 7. When we moved we didn't use the crate just their beds and they walked around all night long looking for them! So we started using them again. When the youngest was a pup, she pulled the blanket through the crate and ate chunks of it so you have to watch blankets with a pup. She also got her paw caught in the crate so we made a thing like a crib bumper, she was almost trained then so we didn't have to crate her for long. We have a Kong Wubba that has lasted for years. They love to carry plush toys around, but they also love to kill them. I threw my lab's favorite away after she shredded it and she got it out of the trash! Also my older lab chewed up a Nylabone and swallowed big chunks then luckily she threw them up. The vet said some dogs are strong chewers and so no Nylabones or Rawhides. She also ate the Kong Dental chew thing too, so not all Kongs are safe.

 

[DMOMof3]

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[DMOMof3]

9 year old Lab here. Was locked in her crate when we were out and at night til she was about 6. Her crate is now left open and her favorite place to snuggle up. She used to shred her beds that lined her crate, found her once with her head sticking out the hole.

She started to chew on furniture as a puppy, but bitter apple cured her of that. Chewed holes in the walls a few times into the drywall, when left alone before age 6.

The only toys she won't destroy are the black kongs. She will shred tennis balls if not watched. She has a large ball outside with a rope going through it that is her favorite toy. Loves to play fetch except she doesn't return it.

She will chew anything she finds in the yard, which includes twigs and leaves from the storm this weekend, which she then vomited all over my carpeting.

But we still love her, just one look from those soft brown eyes and you forget all the trouble.

 

[mrodgers]

A a good hour spend in the park......and my dogs would come home exhausted.

A good hour? Ha!

My mother-in-law has 2 golden retrievers. We would take our lab over there to play. They would run around for an hour, then the 2 goldens would collapse on the ground panting and look at my lab still full of energy like they were thinking, "what an idiot!"

2 or 3 hours of running around with the goldens and my lab would be exhausted and collapse.... for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, she was up and running around full of energy again.

I could throw a ball (with one of those stick throwers, throwing it very far) and she would race full speed after it. I could do that for 3 hours straight, still not tire her out.


Sticks and twigs in the yard? Yeah, she loved them. She preferred larger though....

Heard water running outside the front door one day. There is a water faucet out there on the front of the house. When I remembered the water faucet, I go to the front door and there she is looking at me as if asking, "What?"

 

[Heath_Bar]

For those with chewers of furniture/walls - just put a dab of tabasco on stuff and they won't bother it anymore. Just make sure to have some water handy.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Heard water running outside the front door one day. There is a water faucet out there on the front of the house. When I remembered the water faucet, I go to the front door and there she is looking at me as if asking, "What?"

I love your pictures! (I love all of them, but I didn't want to repost them all and take up all the space.) My yellow lab has the same innocent look when he is covered in mud from head to tail!

 

[MEM]

I don't have a Lab but my Crucian Terrier* is definitely a power chewer. She doesn't care for Kongs but she does love her Galileo bone. She would chew her Nylabone into sharp points that would then cut her mouth so we stopped giving her those. I do let her have a Booda bone rope-toy because she spits out the strings she pulls off. Rawhide is a no-no, per the vet.


* Crucian Terrier - any one of the small mixed breed strays on the Island of St. Croix. We think she's half Chihuahua and half Jack Russell Terrier with maybe some Dachshund for good measure.

 

[MEM]

For those with chewers of furniture/walls - just put a dab of tabasco on stuff and they won't bother it anymore. Just make sure to have some water handy.

I used this method when my dachshund was a puppy and would chew through electrical cords. Works like a charm - she actually seemed to like the taste of Bitter Apple.

 

[KBoopaloo]

I have a super sweet Lab/Border Collie mix with a very gentle disposition. Having said that, I always say that based on the way she absolutely DESTROYS every toy we give her, we should all hope that she never decides to turn her teeth on us! LOL

We got her at 9 months and though she was always a ferocious chewer, she has always known the difference between what is hers and okay to chew and what is not so I can't speak to methods of getting your pup to stop chewing things other than dog toys.

I will say that NylaBones and the super tough black Kong have been the only toys that hold up longer than a day for our dog. I highly recommend both. After reading the tip about the frozen peanut butter in the Kong, I decided to try it tonight. So far, it has kept her occupied for about 30 minutes! I love it!

 

[shoney]

My lab is now 6 and is the perfect little girl....but it took time and patience!!!! I crated her at night and when we weren't home. If I was home and not watching her, she was gated in a hallway so she couldn't get to anything. She did chew the wall once when I left her down there too long!

We would buy very big rawhide bones, sit on the floor with her and hold it for her to chew. If she went for anything that she wasn't supposed to we squirted her with a water bottle. She didn't like that at all!!!! I know a friend that used pennies in a can and shook it whenever the dog did something it wasn't supposed to. I didn't try it because the water bottle worked for us!

lots of exercise. She loved a toy made out of a firehose. My dad bought it for me from a sportsmans catelog....not sure which one. She couldn't chew through it and it worked great for "fetch" in the yard. A tired pup is a happy pup! (and a happy owner!)

I also grew up with labs and in our experience they calm down by 3. Hang in there and good luck!!!!!!