Destructive chewing Questions

We adopted a lovely little rescue Red Heeler X - she is 8 months old and we’ve had her for 2 months. It’s been a steep learning curve as we’ve never had this breed before. She’s smart and trainable, but the biggest problem is her constant chewing of anything she can get her paws on. Just this week we had tradesmen who left some of their equipment in our yard overnight, and she chewed through the electrical cables. She also chews wood. She has her adult teeth, is given bones and has plenty of toys - but she apparently gets bored with them and goes in search of new and interesting things to destroy.
We need eyes in the back of our heads, and spend half our time trying to make sure things are shut away or out of her reach.
Can anyone suggest how we can get her out of this bad (and costly) habit. Is it something they grow out of? And if so, how long does it take?

They do grow out of it but it can take a few years to happen.

The best you can really do is to be constantly aware and always have something at hand to redirect her to.

Always tell workers to put their gear up and out of reach, etc. After they leave, check the yard to make sure nothing is left in her reach. After yard work, do the same - check to make sure nothing is left out.

Keep favorite toys and/or chews in easy reach. As soon as she starts toward an unacceptable item, redirect her to the proper one. Praise her profusely when she redirects.

And most importantly, interact with her as much as possible. Most dogs past teething, chew because they are bored. And they get bored much faster if left on their own. So simply by interacting with her fequently, she will be less inclined to chew. So rather than just put her outside with a toy, go out and playa game with her.

Use baby gates inside to keep her from sliiping into rooms out of your view where she can find inappropriate objects to chew.

Don't reprimand her, punish her, etc, if she does chew on something inappropriate. A dog doesn't understand why THIS plastic object is OK to chew on and THAT one isn't. Simply switch out the inappropriate item for an appropriate one and then praise her when she redirects.

Thanks very much, this is really helpful advice. I work from home so we spend a lot of time together, and as well as daily walks, and trips to the beach, we have games morning and late afternoon. Her toys are all in a basket where she goes to pull them out and play as she wants. She’s also a very sniffy dog, so I thought about hiding treats around the yard for her to find, on those occasions when I have to go out.
I’ll do the redirecting / praise that you’ve suggested, and ensure nothing is left around that she can get hold of, and hope she grows out of the chewing.
I appreciate your help

You might try splitting her toys into three groups. Put two groups away. Leave one group in her basket. When she starts getting bored, switch the group out. That should help make the toys more exciting.

For when you have to go out, the treats around the yard can help. You can have one group of toys that she only gets when you go out. My dogs have toys that stay in our camper - they only get them when we go camping or are doing work in the camper. They are always so excited to play with those toys.

She's lovely.
The treat hiding game is a good idea. Dogs love having to use their brains and their noses. You can develop this game into looking for a toy, and then on to searching for random articles which carry your scent. Always reward for an indication, and even more so if she starts to bring the item to you. They say that 20 minutes of scenting is equal to an hour of exercise.
Stop Chew spray can be useful if you are having damage to furnishings inside the house, but not really any use outdoors.

The anti-chew sprays didn't work withTornado-dog. He would lay on the bed or couch and chew on table corners... I ended up getting a bunch of metal corners and nailed them to all the tables to hide the chew marks.

Good idea. Eddie discovered that carpet would come away in strings. Fortunately he had only tried one spot so Chas cut a strip of transparent perspex and we planted one of the table legs on it. Actually, that's the only damage that the Beagles have ever done, I've been very lucky.

That’s a great idea Toedtoes. She’s currently got access to everything at any time. Though she has her favourites and they have names that she recognises. I’ll start dividing and switching them out.

CaroleC I like that idea too. Her name’s Rosie and she’s my little Velcro dog. My little shadow that follows me everywhere.

All of these ideas are so good thankyou. Anything that wears her out a little bit more would be great. At this stage she only has 2 speeds, full on or comatose. I’d be grateful if she slept through the night. We get up at 5 am, but Rosie’s “I’m awake now” time is 3.30 am

I found the bitter apple spray worked well for my dogs. But each dog is different. I found I needed to spray it periodically but it’s been a while so I don’t remember how often I would do that. It’s relatively cheap, so I’d give it a try and see if it works. It definitely protected the handle on my recliner. I have multiple Nylabones for my dogs to chew on, they like those. Good luck

I did find that lemon juice mixed with water worked too, I did have a rectangle rug in my kitchen, it was there for the old dog because he used to slip a lot when he was stiffening up and used to try and stretch his legs and then the poor thing would slip, but anyway it turned out to the shape of an oval one when I got the pup, so I tried anti chew spray, no good he still done it, so I mixed up lemon and water and sprayed it all around the edge of the rug and it worked, he’s never touched it since.
I did find a chunky Y nylon bone and all 3 dogs loved having a good go on that, it’s now just a stub end.

I hadn’t heard of the Nylabones, so just checked them out online and will definitely get her one to try. The no chew sprays here in Australia don’t get very good reviews, but I see that I can get the American bitter apple spray on Amazon. Thanks for your suggestions.

The lemon juice sounds like a good cost-effective alternative to try before investing in the sprays. Thanks very much Tone

I have no rugs or carpets so that solved that issue.

Dog liked paper when she was young. After coming home to find several books ripped apart and flying around the yard, I moved all books off the lower three shelves of bookcases.

Bat-dog didn't chew but liked to take my slippers outside. It is really annoying having to go outside in the rain with one barefoot to find your very wet slipper... Ever since, I have multiple pairs of slippers.

Moose-dog was perfect and never chewed anything - not even his toys. Although he did rip the top bit of the fence slats off so he could see over the fence.

With Tornado-dog, I gave him Happy Belly rawhide chew sticks. He liked to carry them around. They were easy to keep in the bedside table and end table drawers and give to him when he started fidgeting. Now he just steals things to add to his treasure hoard (which gets sent to the dump when it grows too big to step over - his current location for the hoard is at the base of the stairs).

Tornado-dog had only two gears too. He's gotten better.

As for sleeping longer and later, that will come as she ages. With Tornado-dog, once he had reached an age where he wasn't going to explode if he didn't get outside right that moment, I used the chews to occupy him for a while longer before we got up. One chew got me a good hour extra in bed.

Good idea! I’ll give that a try too.

I now remind myself not to get any dog/pup under a year old, no matter how cute they are and look. I shall go back to rehoming like I did my old dog when I got him. The only problem I ever had with him was when he had a upset tummy and he used to look at me like ‘ mum I couldn’t help it’ I never told him off for it, just a sigh was enough for him when I seen it, as he in all the 10+ years of looking after him he never barked once at anything. So he wasn’t going to start now. He did howl once and I all I said was enough!! He never done that again either. But now this one given the chance if you leave any towels around will rip them up and leave holes in them. So we put them up high out the way, other than the said two items he’s been pretty good.

You soon learn how to puppy proof your home but each new baby brings a new challenge. It was the Löwchens that taught to protect my books but the guard remains for all time.
(An old photo of Eddie).

My sons pup getting used to her new pals, she’s still going through the pinch the shoe stage and chewing them