[Rhiannonj]

I have a beautiful 6 month old ridgeback X Bull Arab. She was a rescue dog and we got her at 4 months old. All round she’s quite a well behaved dog but she constantly chews my roommates things. If she wears a pair of shoes, my dog will eat them, if she leaves her things in the lounge room, my dog will eat them, if she leaves her bedroom door open my dog will go in there and chew on her things. My other roommates and myself can easily leave our doors open and she won’t eat anything of ours, she only does it to the one roommate. My roommate now wants us to muzzle her when no one is home but I don’t think that’s fair because she won’t be able to eat or play with her toys.

Can anyone help with what we can do to stop her chewing?

 

[Knute]

Easy PZ solution.

Tell the roommate to leave her stuff and belongings in her room and keep the door closed.

Otherwise, anything left within the dog's access is fair game for chewing.

This is known as "dog proofing".

 

[SpiritIvory]

Hi!
Welcome to puppies, haha!
At 6 months old you puppy would be teething, those gums get itchy and sore so the thing that soothes then is to chew!

At this age the best thing you can do is puppy proof the house. Anything that puppy can get to needs to come up off the floor close doors and baby gates are also an amazing help to seperate the areas in which puppy can enter.

It's just cruel to muzzle her for doing things that a puppy does.
You might have to talk to your roommate and educate them haha!

Good luck!

 

[Lillith]

When nobody is home, crate the dog. Leave her with a single chew, like a nylabone, and a kong stuffed with tasty treats and frozen so it lasts a long time. I stuff mine with wet dog food and "plug" it with a little peanut butter.

You should also make sure to supervise her 100% of the time when she is free to roam so you can redirect her when she is trying to chew on something that she is not supposed to. You can use baby gates to help you keep her in a single room if it helps you. She SHOULD NOT be sneaking off, getting into your roommate's room, and chewing up your roommates things. She is like a child, and it is your job to watch your dog.

Dog proofing is also a good option. That means picking up EVERYTHING. It should be put away in a closet or high enough so the dog can't reach it. Encourage your roommate to keep her door closed, but if you are supervising and confining properly, she shouldn't have to.

Make sure your pup is getting proper exercise, as well. A bored, under stimulated pup is a destructive pup. She is a puppy, after all, so exercise alone won't stop her from chewing on things she isn't supposed to, but a tired dog is 10x easier to supervise because they aren't bouncing off the walls while you're just trying to watch television. Hopefully they pick an appropriate toy for a chew session and take a nap after!