How to Fix Destructive Dog Chewing (Featuring Porter)

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Porter was mouthy as hell. If a toy was labled "indestructible," he was destroying it. If I gave him a bed that was not made out of steel, he was destroying it. If he got near a rope leash, he was destroying it. My 15-year-old winter gloves? Destroyed. My favorite boots from college? Destroyed. Shoelace? Shredded (as I was trying to tie them.) He destroyed everything we put near him. There was one week where he at at least two martingale collars off of his own neck. I have no idea how he managed that, but I started buying them in twos. Every moment of out existence with Baby Porter had the potential to turn into a tug-of-war if Porter decided to latch onto pants or sleeves. I was getting tired of him, and his 7-mile daily walks, and his bitey teeth REAL FAST.

Oh my God. I am getting tired of thinking of everything we had to do to get the chewing in line. As you already know, Porter was already one when we got him, but he was still mouthy like a puppy. He had not been taught how to use his teeth properly and we knew we had to figure it out before our house was turned into shreds of party confetti via Porter's mouth.

Here's what we did to get Porter's mouth in line:

1. Make the object uninteresting: The most annoying of the mouth habits was when he would grab our pants or sleeves and start tugging. This was fun for him (INSTANT TUG!) and not fun for whomever was getting their outfit destroyed. Instinctively, we would start pulling back, which Porter LOVED, but instead we had to learn to just stop moving. We would grab the item as close as we could to Porter's mouth so that we could arrest the tug-of-war and keep the item still. This would end of tug-of-war and then we just wait for him to lose interest and let go of the item. I was so proud of myself the first time this worked.

   
   

2. Say "Ouch.": Porter did not have control over the pressure of his teeth, so we would play the "ouch" game with him. When it was play time, we would scratch him and wrestle with him, or play tug, but if he put his teeth on us in excitement we would say "OUCH" and end play for a bit. My husband would also start fake crying but you needn't take the histrionics that far.

   
   

3. Buy him things he's allowed to chew: This is where the financial black hole of the chew toys came in. We bought everything that said "for aggressive chewers" and "indestructible" and Porter made mincemeat out of all of them. Sometimes we just bought him stuff that we knew he would destroy in 3 seconds because what was the difference? (The difference was that those toys usually had some delectable squeakers in there, so we had to watch Porter like a hawk and get the squeaker before he did. Do not let your dog eat the squeaker or any other part of an inedible toy!)

   
   

   

   Here is Porter destroying a platypus for aggressive chewers.

   Here are some of toys I bought on Amazon between 2018-2020 that Porter demolished. Some of them he enjoyed demolishing and we ended up buying again and again.

   
   

	According to Amazon, I bought these 3 times.

These would all be better for dogs that liked to toss around their toys, but they were not great for Porter, who was a whirling dervish of teeth.

To support Porter in making GOOD CHOICES about his chewing, we would set him up in what we called THE CHEW TOY RING OF SUCCESS.

To create the CHEW TOY RING OF SUCCESS, I would collect all of the things that Porter was allowed to chew (nylabones, benebones, stuffed kongs, kong toys, bully sticks, and rawhides) and put them in a huge circle around where he liked to hang out in the den. This way, he could make good decisions and we could praise him. Sometimes he would run away from the CHEW TOY RING OF SUCCESS and I would have to direct him back to the circle and remind him to MAKE GOOD CHOICES, but this mindset helped a lot. We were just constantly redirecting him to things he was allowed to chew whenever he started chewing on forbidden items.

Here are some of the items that went into his Chew Toy Ring of Success:

4. Replace forbidden chew items with acceptable chew items: Whenever Porter went running by with a pair of underwear or a brand new sneaker, we would simply remove that item from his mouth and replace it with an Approved Chew Item (see above or below).

   
   

5. Bust out the bitter apple spray: Last but not least, if your dog will not leave a certain item alone, it might be time to break out the bitter apple spray. Simply spray a bit on the item you do not want your dog chewing. This has a strong taste that they do not like, which discourages them from chewing the item. We only used this once or twice on leashes Porter kept destroying when he wanted to run free and sow his wild oats.

   

   Apple Bitter

   
   
   
   

Other Things We Gave Porter to Chew On

1. Rawhides & bully sticks: Eventually we had to get rid of the bully sticks because he was scarfing them down, especially that last little chunk at the bottom. Instead of investing in the bully stick holder thing, we just phased them out. His tummy has always done well with Dentley's rawhide rolls so we just used them in various sizes. Different rawhides/snacks work (or don't work) for different dogs. We would just order things off of Amazon and try them. If he didn't choke on them or get the shits, we would order them again.

   

   Dentley's Rawhide Rolls

   He also liked Greenies and Whimzee's, so we would give him those, as well, if he seemed to be in a very chewy mood on a particular day. Eventually we had to cut down on the 300 chew toys so that he didn't get too chonky, but the combo of toys, rawhides, dental chews, etc., got us through his mouthy phase

   
   

Whimzees

The One Special Toy

And then, after all that destruction, Porter never destroyed this one toy that Chris brought home for him:

This modern pink Kong elephant is a bit updated from the original.

We don't know why, but he always carried this one around and never annihilated it like his other toys. He would toss it and lightly nibble it, but for some reason this toy still exists today and has survived 4 puppies. We call pink elephant "baby," because we assume Porter never destroyed it due to it being his "baby," but we don't really know. Here are some clips of him tossing around his "baby," (swipe to end to see "baby" now) and you can also see some of the other toys in his CHEW TOY CIRCLE OF SUCCESS.

So, if you've got a dog under two-years-old and they are in that mouthy phase, I feel for you! I hope some of the above tips help you get the chewing under control.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!