Behaviour
A chewed door frame, a gutted cushion, the third charger this month. He isn't getting back at you. Film the first hour and you'll see if it's boredom or panic.
Worth knowing. An adult dog who suddenly starts chewing, chews hard objects until his gums bleed or swallows what he chews may have dental pain, a digestive problem or anaemia. If he has swallowed an object and is vomiting or passing no stool, it is an emergency. Before any training plan, see your own vet.
You open the front door and the first thing you see is the door frame, chewed down to bare wood. A sofa cushion has been opened up and the stuffing is all over the hall, and the third phone charger this month lies in two pieces. Perhaps yours looks different: a five-month-old puppy working through the table leg, the corner of the rug and your hand, anything at mouth height. Or a three-year-old who is perfectly settled while you're home and turns into someone else during your six hours at work. The damage looks alike; the causes don't. First work out which one you've got, then decide what to do.
Dogs chew the way we walk: it's simply part of being a dog, and there's nothing personal in it. The useful question is a different one: why this object, why now, why so much? The causes below often overlap. Pick the one that sounds most like your dog.
Teeth. Between 3 and 7 months the milk teeth fall out and the adult ones come through. Gums ache, the itch is real, and chewing soothes it. A puppy chewing during those months needs the right things to chew; it isn't a behaviour problem. Once the teeth are in, many dogs keep chewing hard until around 18 months, and big breeds until 2 years. Canine adolescence is a long stretch.
Boredom. A young, healthy dog left alone 8 hours a day with two short pavement walks has energy and brainpower going spare. Chewing is the only activity on offer. You can spot boredom damage by how it's spread through the house, across unrelated objects (the remote, a shoe, a book, a chair leg), away from doors and windows. When you walk in, the dog is relaxed.
Panic at being left alone. This picture is worth recognising straight away. The damage is at the door, the frames, the windowsill, the curtains: the places you left by or where he might see you. It starts in the first few minutes after you go. It comes with howling or whining, drooling (wet patches on the floor), sometimes wee or poo indoors from a dog who is otherwise clean. Food you left goes untouched. When you come back he pants and clings to you. This is a panic attack, and telling him off only deepens it. Set your phone recording when you leave and watch the first 20 minutes; that tells you which situation you're dealing with.
Hunger and the bin. The dog who tips the bin, opens the kitchen cupboard and chews packaging is looking for food. A closed door and a portion that really fills him sort it.
Attention. He grabs a slipper and you chase him round the house. For a dog who spends a lot of time alone, five minutes of being chased is the high point of the day. He doesn't even need to chew the slipper; picking it up is enough to set you off.
Fear. A dog who suddenly starts chewing when left may have had a fright while you were out: fireworks, a storm, the neighbour's alarm. The damage is where he hid (a wardrobe, the bathroom) or at the exits.
Your scent. Shoes, socks, the remote, the phone case. The most chewed things are the ones that smell of you, and for the dog it's a way of staying close while you're gone. Telling him off changes nothing here. Put your things away and leave him something that's allowed to smell of you.
Telling him off when you get home. You see the mess and raise your voice. He flattens his ears, drops his gaze, makes himself small, and it looks as if he knows what he did. A 2009 study found that this expression appears when the owner scolds, whether or not the dog has done anything. It's an appeasement gesture aimed at the cross person in front of him. He links the scolding to you coming home, not to the cushion he shredded four hours earlier. Tomorrow he hides when he hears your key and chews just the same.
Rubbing his nose in it. That links nothing to anything either, apart from fear of your hand.
Bitter spray as a strategy. On one particular object it can help. Long term, the dog moves on to the next unsprayed thing, and some dogs happily lick it off.
An old slipper as a toy. He can't tell the old one you gave him from the new one in the hall. What you've given him is permission for a whole category of objects.
The crate, 9 hours a day. A crate has its uses: for puppies, for short spells, and as a resting place the dog chooses himself. Shut in for 9 hours he can't wreck the house, but he learns nothing and burns off nothing, so he comes out like a whirlwind. A dog who panics when alone can break teeth and claws trying to get out of one.
Just more running. An hour's running with a young dog gives you a fitter young dog. Boredom chewing drops when the boredom drops, and the nose deals with boredom faster than the legs.
Leaving him "to get used to it" when it's panic. Every long absence is another panic attack lived through to the end. His fear grows from one departure to the next.
Tidying away doesn't teach him anything. It stops him rehearsing the chewing every day and buys you time for the rest.
Puppies and adolescents in particular, and plenty of adults too, need to chew every day, and not just a bit. Give him three kinds of things, rotated so he doesn't get bored:
Keep two or three chew items down at all times and swap them every two days. What's always there gets boring; what turns up now and then is interesting.
You catch him with something he shouldn't have. Don't run and don't shout. Pick up a good treat, crouch down, say "give" and show it to him. When he lets go, he gets the treat and some cheerful praise, and straight away you offer him something he's allowed to chew. Within a couple of weeks he starts coming to you to trade what he's found for what's in your hand. Plenty of dogs begin bringing you "forbidden" things just to do the swap. That bothers you a lot less than having them chewed under the bed.
The plan above won't be enough, and on its own it can even delay things. Panic is worked on with very short absences, a few seconds at first, built up gradually, with no departure rituals and the camera running so you can see exactly when he cracks. It takes months. Get help from a behaviour specialist in the first few weeks, and talk to your own vet as well: sometimes their treatment is what makes the plan workable. We have a separate page on separation anxiety.
| Day | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Film the first hour after you leave. Everything chewable goes behind doors. Set up the safe area. |
| 2 | Five stuffed toys in the freezer. First sniffing walk, 30 minutes on a long line. |
| 3 | Food comes from toys and the search game, not the bowl. Start "give" with a swap. |
| 4–7 | Swap the chew items every two days, play the search game before every departure, practise "give" daily. |
| 7 | Watch the footage again and look at what's still in one piece. Either the boredom damage has eased off, or the panic at the door is unchanged. The second means a specialist. |
Tell your own vet what he chews, since when, and whether he swallows it. If you can, take the chewed object with you: it shows how hard he bites and what he's after.
Boredom chewing responds to nose work faster than any other behaviour problem. We see it at training: young dogs brought along because "he's eating the house" do 30 to 40 minutes on a trail and sleep for the rest of the day. Sniffing takes a huge amount out of them. Once a dog has searched for a person through the woods, he has no wish to search the living room for something to chew. You don't need to do mantrailing to get the effect. Search games indoors, hidden food and sniffing walks do the same thing on a smaller scale, every day. Still, if you have a young dog who destroys things and you want to see the difference in a single evening, come to a session.
An assessment session starts from your footage and from what a day in his life looks like. With this problem, most often it turns out he spends too long with nothing to do, and the plan is about what he does with that time instead.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer.
Usually boredom or panic at being left. With boredom the damage is scattered over all sorts of objects and he is relaxed when you come in. With panic it is at the door, the frames, the windowsill, with whining and drool, from the first few minutes. Film the first hour after you leave: the two look completely different and need different plans. With panic, neither a crate nor a telling-off helps.
Adult teeth come through between 3 and 7 months, and chewing in that period is about teething; cold chews help. After that, many dogs keep chewing hard until around 18 months, big breeds until 2 years. An adult who chews a lot is usually a bored adult or an anxious one.
You don't. He can't link a telling-off now to a cushion he chewed four hours ago; he links it to you coming home. The "guilty look" is an appeasement gesture triggered by your tone. What you end up with is a dog who hides when he hears your key and chews just the same tomorrow. Tidy things away and give him something to chew.
Three kinds of thing, rotated: hollow rubber toys stuffed with his food and frozen (20 to 30 minutes of work); natural chews, with you nearby at first, for dogs who don't swallow chunks; and things to wreck, such as a cardboard box or a towel knotted with food. Not old slippers: he can't tell them from new ones.
A crate stops the damage while he is inside, but it teaches him nothing and doesn't use up any energy. It is useful for puppies, for short spells, and as a resting place he chooses. Nine hours a day in a crate gives you a dog who bursts out like a whirlwind, and one who panics when alone can break teeth trying to get out.
A behaviour that appears suddenly or changes for no apparent reason can have a medical cause. For full details, consult your dog's own veterinarian.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
Chewing, barking, racing round the house at ten at night and still not tired. A dog like that tires through his head, and you see the change within days.
He howls from the first minute and only goes quiet when you walk back in. That is panic, and panic is worked in seconds at first, not in hours of 'getting used to it'.
Needle teeth, torn sleeves, crying children. Play biting is normal in a puppy and it passes, but not by itself: you teach him how hard he is allowed to bite.
Bulbs dug up one by one, a hole by the fence, a hole in the shade. Each has a different cause, and the hole tells you which if you look at it properly.
An assessment session tells you where you stand and which plan makes sense for your dog. The behaviour programme then works step by step, reward-based only.