Chewing due to teething stops at what age?

[Kathy]

Lucky is doing great but I noticed he loves to chew. Not destructive chewing but he has to have something in his mouth all the time.

Since he was a stray and they mislabeled his gender, I'm wondering if they also guessed his age wrong.
His paperwork says a year old but don't dogs normally stop chewing by then?

It doesn't seem to be nervousness, he sleeps soundly but when he's awake; slippers, shoes, styrofoam inserts out of boxes, anything is fair game. He doesn't destroy it though, not even the styrofoam-he just chews gently.

His teeth are very clean and bright white. I didn't see any plaque at all.

It's been years since I've had a young dog, I got ChiChi in 1990 so I've forgotten at what point they stop being chewers.

[Deleted]

My experience has usually been about 1 year old, give or take. Do yourself a favor and puppy-proof the house (put everything that you don't want chewed somewhere he can't get at it). Also, put anything breakable above the tail-wagging height, which for Lucky isn't going to be very high. Then get a bunch of toys for him to chew on. A LOT of toys. OK, so you'll be tripping over them constantly and cussing when you stub your toe on a Kong in the dark, but it will give him something to play with and chew on that won't make his goddess upset. ;D

We have an old end table with doors that one of the doors fell off of, and instead of replacing it, we put all the toys in the "toy box" and when one of the dogs wants something, they stick their head in and get it. You could get a small toybox for kids and take the lid off or just leave it open. As long as he can get his head inside to grab a toy when he wants it. I still haven't figured out how to get them to put their toys back in the toybox when they're finished with them, though...

~Lannie

P.S. Our youngest dog is 8 now, and the others are 10 and 12, and they STILL pull out a mess of toys to play with every day. They never grow up. ;D

[Deleted]

A year? HAH!!! More like 2 or 3 with some breeds. Sometimes I think it's nervous chewing rather than teething if they are compulsive about it after 8-12 mos though....

[Kathy]

Well I took him in this morning to the vets for his neutering. I have a set up in the back seat to hook his lead to so he doesn't go flying if I have to brake but it also keeps him on his side of the bench seat.

Don't you know the little devil stretched out to reach the other side of the car and chewed up a corner on a box that I was going to ship after dropping him off.

He also tossed his cookies on my back seat, not right away; he rode great the first 27 1/2 miles but he waited until we got within 3-5 blocks of the vets office.

What an interesting dog and morning.

[Deleted]

Drove 2 hrs with 2 pups hurling in my back seat not too long ago. And they had been eating crap food so it was REALLY rank. I was in SUCH a good mood after that....

[starfire]

Kathy - you might get the puppy some Nalor (something like that) bones they have different flavors, chicken, beef etc. They are great chew plastic bones. My dog is 9 and she still chews on them.

She had lots of toys, at first I had more chew toys (hard plastic) now she has more stuff toys because she thinks they are her babies.

[bbird]

I think some dogs are just chewers. Our oldest dog is. She never chewed on furniture or the house, dog toys, ect. It was the lego's or army men, little action toys that the kids left laying around. She wouldn't eat them either, just chew and spit them out, lol. In fact I think it was always hard plastic that she would chew. I take that back, when she was a puppy my daughter left her baby doll on the floor one night and she chewed the face off the doll. I woke to screams the next morning because my daughter was crying because her doll was murdered!

I'd try to encourage dog toys if the dog likes them. I get a kick out of dogs that actually like dog toys and how they play with them, lol.