# Chewing for a 14 month old - Regression?



## katter (Jun 19, 2012)

Rio just turned 14 months. He's been great (aside from jumping) and hasn't been chewing anything over the past few months. A few weeks ago he started chewing up my shoes again (he did this when he was younger) and over the past week he's chewed one of our chairs and a rug. Is he regressing? We were worried that he wasn't getting enough doggie play-time so we set up Monday, Wednesday and Friday play dates for him, so he spends 3-4 hours running around with other dogs on those days. Given that we started that a few weeks ago, could he be learning bad behavior from other dogs? Or could it be something else? 

Any help/thoughts would be much appreciated. 

Thanks!
Alan


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## goldentemperment (May 16, 2012)

I don't have much help, except to say that our Ella is about 15 months, and has been a chewer since she was a baby. We have 4 year old and 6 year old human kids, so socks, shoes, Legos, toys, homework, etc are all things we pull out of her mouth on a daily basis.

Is Rio good at the "drop" command? Does he have a lot of other toys to chew on?

Personally, I've resigned myself to the fact that if I didn't keep it out of her mouth in the first place, I have no business getting overly mad when she gets it...although sometimes it gets frustrating.

As far as learning habits from other dogs, with a breed like Golden Retrievers, I think it's such a natural mechanism to chew on stuff, I wouldn't overcommit to the idea that he's learning something that he wouldn't have done anyway...although the timing is suspect.


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## tomw (Jul 9, 2012)

Lacie is 14 months too. She was a big chewer when she was a young puppy. Then it quieted down. About a month ago, she started a frantic chewing frenzy. She has eaten a hole through a chair, torn apart a sofa, and chewed our drapes. She is constantly looking for things to chew and has suddenly become mouthy again. I called our positive trainer and expressed my concern, as I too thought that Lacie was regressing. My trainer made it clear that she is NOT regressing at all but rather, has entered into the young adolescent chewing phase of her life. There are countless articles about this that you can google and read. But adolescent chewing is very real and can be very destructive. You need to re-direct constantly and manipulate the environment so as to deny your dog access to chewable items as much as you can. Goldens and labs are effected more by this phase but it does pass. I do feel your pain and frustration, as we are going through it as well.


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## stealle (Nov 12, 2012)

tomw said:


> Lacie is 14 months too. She was a big chewer when she was a young puppy. Then it quieted down. About a month ago, she started a frantic chewing frenzy. She has eaten a hole through a chair, torn apart a sofa, and chewed our drapes. She is constantly looking for things to chew and has suddenly become mouthy again. I called our positive trainer and expressed my concern, as I too thought that Lacie was regressing. My trainer made it clear that she is NOT regressing at all but rather, has entered into the young adolescent chewing phase of her life. There are countless articles about this that you can google and read. But adolescent chewing is very real and can be very destructive. You need to re-direct constantly and manipulate the environment so as to deny your dog access to chewable items as much as you can. Goldens and labs are effected more by this phase but it does pass. I do feel your pain and frustration, as we are going through it as well.


This seems to be what is going on with my 10.5 month old. He was a horrible about mouthing people before he lost all his baby teeth and same with chewing. We had a nice break from about 6 months until 10 months. So it was a nice 4 months, but now he is becoming destructive again. He never cared about the TV remote, but suddenly he is obsessed with it. He tore up one of my shoes the other day. He is constantly picking up items, usually shoes, but could be any small item (like hair clips) and taking them to his crate. He seems to be getting a little more mouthy too, but it doesn't hurt like it did with the baby teeth. 

Any idea when this "adolescent phase" should pass?


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

a second teething phase...bigger teeth, stronger jaws, longer legs to reach more and more off limit things = T R O U B L E.

Some pass through it quickly...some hold on to favorite naughty items their whole life. <my Lexi was famous for her remote control 'seek and destroy' radar...>


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