Hi, I have a labrador puppy-for the first time, shes 4 months old, and generally is really well behaved. Is their any ways to stop them chewing?? I have removed all small items-shoes,books etc, but then she tries the carpets and table legs:rolleyes: !!! She has a lot of different types of toys and chews which she is interested in most of the time, but think the table legs appeals more to her :-)
Toilet training is going great, its the paper or the garden than kfully! Would love any suggestions!! thanks
Natalie x

Four months old? Probably teething big time. We read a suggestion here to wet a terrycloth towel and freeze it, then give 'em the frozen towel. Calley loves it - she is about 5 months now. Frozen beef marrow bones are good too. We have also found that giving Calley one toy at a time is good - rotating over a few days - old toys seem "new" again. As far as the table and chair legs - we hear ya! Training Calley on "leave it" is the only thing that helped. Say "leave it" and give her a treat in the opposite direction of what you want her to leave. We trained by putting a treat on the floor close to her and covering it with a hand as soon as she made a move for it while simultaneously treating her in the opposite direction. Good luck and hang in there!

That was some really good advice!! I have a 6 1/2 mo. old male. He has calmed his chewing a bit now, but it was really bad for a while. I really reccommend, if you don't already, either using a crate or gating your pup in a room of the house (we chose the kitchen for the tile- easy clean up- and the no furniture aspect) while you are away and at night. I really hated the idea but Jack really responded and started obeying our commands, plus my furniture is safe now. He stopped chewing our furniture after that.

I am learning about rotating toys, Jack got bored of them and although it is important to have variety for him it is also important he doesn't have too many. He gets a rope, a bone, a kong and a ball. It has worked so far.

Another thing is a product called "Bitter Apple". You can get it at Petco or Petsmart. It is really good. It deters chewing. It doesn't smell (at least to us) so that is a plus. We use it all of the time. You have t reapply every-so-often but that beats chewed up furniture.

Good luck.
Amy

So the bitter apple really does work? Have you seen those plastic things you can attach on corners to make them covered and unchewable...

Another thing that worked good for me when mine were teething was to keep the Kong in the freezer. It seemed to stay cold quite a while and it had to have felt good on their poor gums. Chewing can be a tough problem.

Bitter Apple works Wonders!!! We tried one other product which I cannot remember but BA works!!! Our lab tried to chew a few things...wait......A lOT of things...namely shoes, but fortunately, they were my boyfriends....LOL I don't think our lab was into heels. The product does smell like alchohol. Till this day our dog "freeks" out when I pull the bottle out. Definately not a dumb dog. Freezing the kong toy is something I will try. With me getting a new pup and already having one, I have a pretty good idea what to get fortunately but just b/c it worked for one does not mean it will work for the other. I will give as we did give our other dog is a soup bone for her to knaw on. I do not cook any bones I give to our dogs as they have a tendency to break and chip off once cooked. Uncooked will not do that....at least with our dogs.