Everything is a chew toy!!!!!!!!

[qopmag2000]

My Nala is about 8 months old now. She has all of a sudden decided she was going to eat everything that she can reach. She recently decided that if it is on the table, it is fair game. In the past 3 days, she has eaten: a baseball hat, eye drops, phone book, bag of doritos, cell phone case and train schedule. Now when she has eaten these, we usually just finished playing or taking a LONG walk, she has about 4-6 toys laying in the same area, and a bowl full of food and water and most of the time, I was in the next room!! She just started doing this. As of last week, we were starting to leave her out of her crate for 15-20 minute spans when I ran to the bank, post office etc. and she was doing GREAT without tearing things up. Now I can't even leave her in a different room when I am home with her.

Any suggestions?

[AngelBunny]

Young, healthy, energetic Rotties need mental workouts in addition to the physical exercise they get. Are you in class with her?

Your girl needs to have her physical exercise upped--and she needs to go to class and needs practice everyday between classes. She's telling you this with all the chewing she's doing. She's bursting at the seams from too much energy.

Do you have a crate? You need to start crating her to prevent her from eating what she shouldn't.

[qopmag2000]

We have her in a class every week. She passed puppy class with flying colors and now she is in intermediate classes. I work with her whenever I possibly can. I work nights and my husband works days. I work with her at least 2 hours during the day and then my husband works with her at night. On an average day, she gets walked 2-4 miles along with lots of play time. We have always crated her at night and we were trying to start letting her out during the day when we weren't home (in short spans of time). Thanks for the input!

[AngelBunny]

Sounds like you're on the right track with her! Nala is lucky to be your dog!!

Then her issue is she can't be uncrated or unsupervised. And, when you're home, think about leashing her to you or at least having her in the same room with you.

[tla0126]

What I found out in having a dog, things don't get eaten if things don't get left out. Of course, she needs to learn not to do those things, but preventing them from happening will help in the short term... When I leave, I make sure anything temping is off the table and out of reach.

Maybe she is getting too much freedom than what she needs right now?? Restrict freedom until she can prove she won't do anything. Maybe only have her out if she is in the same room as you? Hopefully others will have some good input as well. Good luck!

[qopmag2000]

She is so funny. . . the things that she has eaten, are the things that have been sitting there, in the exact same spot, since she came home from the shelter with us. You would think that after 6 months, she would just ignore them.

**Why did she have to chew my only hat, when my husband always has at least two sitting out at all times?? Go figure :)

[tla0126]

I suppose she likes the smell of you better =)

[mamamia1]

I would say she's just not ready to be left out of her crate. Her comfort level when you are home is probably higher allowing her to do more of what she really feels like doing. Since you've been letting her out of her crate for just short periods of time when you're not there, my guess is she is probably spending most of the time preoccupied with where you went and when you're coming back. Our last rottie couldn't be really trusted until she was fully matured, around 2 years, even then any garbage mistakenly left out was fair game.

If at all possible, set up a safe room that is pretty clear of all unacceptable things out of reach.

[QuietDaze]

Eight months is probably too early for her to be left out alone unless she is right there with you. I believe in putting things away to a certain extent but she also needs to learn that she is not allowed to chew on anything that isn't a toy. If you can't watch her, you'll have to crate her otherwise she'll continue to chew up stuff and you won't be able to catch her to correct it.

When I started leaving Kane out, I made him sit on his pillow with a toy or a bone and pretty much ignored him. The minute he got up to check something out that he shouldn't I corrected it. If I left the room he would have to come along. He worked up to being allowed out alone, and now he's trustworthy but it took some time. He wasn't allowed to sniff on the table, lick things (licking seems to be the precursor to chewing for him), or run around like a fool. For me, it seems the more active he is in the house, the more likely he is to want to chew on things or knock things over. (destructive dogs is a pet peeve of mine) In fact, when he was allowed in the bedroom we left him out at night first because he would just be sleeping. He's almost 4 now and has been reliable in the house for about 2 years.

That's funny that she only eats your stuff, Kane would only try to eat my slippers, he wouldn't bother my husband's at all.