Being a domestic dog is much more stressful than their cousins the wolf.Domestic dogs spend most of their time indoors and need to find ways to keep busy, burn off steam.Chewing is a good why to keep busy and burn off steam. The advise I would give people for chewing problems are as follows:
1.Add an extra 30-60 minutes of vigorous exercise a day.
2.Start a bone ritual, hollow bones are perfect to stuff with yummy things and freeze them (yogurt, peanut butter or even Cheeze whiz) We want to imprint into the dogs brain that chewing the bone is enjoyable and rewarding.We do this by offering the bone everyday, for bone time.
After a few weeks, your dog will hopefully start to seek out the bone when they feel bored or stressed. I suggest providing a little toy box to store all your dogs chew toys(have a few different type of bones available in the box). You will see the dog actually go to the box and sort through the toys and make a selection, when he feels the need.
In the mean time, when you catch your dog chewing on something you don't want, don't scold the dog. Offer him something else that is appropriate(redirect him). When you visually see your dog chewing on the appropriate things, tell him what a good dog! and even give him a treat while hes chewing.
Between the ages of 4-6 months and 9-12 months. These are the times when your puppy is teething and they will chew on anything and everything. A good idea is to have safe chewing toys all over the house. Yes you may step on them and hurt your foot once in a while but it is better for them to chew on a toy than say your underwear or that work project that is do tomorrow.
New habits can take close to 6-8 weeks for some dogs, so get busy, good luck!
