While there is no sure proof way to ensure your dog is not going to continue to scare the beejeezus out of you by picking up and or chewing on anything, you can lesson the potential for problems by purchasing toys for your dog. A KONG, a sterilized bone, some booda bones (made of corn starch) and some soft toys your dog can shred. You need to be aware that puppies explore the world with their mouths, people use their hands after stuff like rusty nails stops tasting good and our moms start hitting the ceiling. So, if you see your pup with a nail or see she is chewing on something, tell her to leave it (calm but firm) and show her one of the toys you purchased for her, actively tell her a command IE: Go get your baby, or squeeky, or toy" or whatever works for you. This teaches your dog to chew on the things which are okay. You need to be immediate, and do it over and over - dogs learn by rote (repetitive learning) and the more you do it, the faster she will understand what is okay. This should clear up in a week or so. You can actually go around to the areas she has had her teeth on, and show her the cord, or rubber thingy and tell her to leave it, Firm deep voice - yelling not necessary. If she backs away from the item and puts her ears back, you hit home, back away from the item you dont want her to chew, give her the plush toy with the command. Oh and try not to get too upset when the cute cuddly $5 soft stuffed toy has been shredded and pieces are all over the floor - this is what she is suppose to do. Good Luck

If you have a lab, forget the soft toys with the squeeky things inside, they shred them before you can say, "did you like it". What kind of puppy do you have. Some seem to be worse than others. Also, how old and how much time is the puppy in the crate? With the pups you have to be with them and watching them when they are out of the crate. No ifs, ands or butts. Its a pain in the you know what, but if something goes wrong, it isn't the pup's fault. That's what the crate is for, when you don't have time or aren't able to give the pup our full attention. I learn that lessen every time we add a new family member. In my family we add labs, even more of a challenge because labradors will eat anything and I really do mean anything. My daughter does daily bandaging and the dogs will eat yards of bandaging materials if we don't do the things we do to prevent it. Don't get me wrong, you're not a bad mom. Just have to get down on your hands and knees and look at the house from the dog's perspective. I can remember when I decided in the middle of February that I just had to have a third pup. My call to the breeder gave me only 3 days to puppy-proof the house. I was like a madwoman going around putting things that the other two will ignore away because a puppy is like Christopher Columbus coming into the new world. Hands and knees inspection of all areas where he was going to be able to be out were cleared of all electrical cords and the like. That said, the puppy will soon be a dog and has to learn "house manners" like not chewing mommy's cord to her computer, so there is the training component as well. The leave it command is one of the first things my guys learn after their own name. Best of luck to you and your new puppy!!!

Before we brought our puppy home at 4 months of age, we got a variety of toys at the pet store-- rope toys, plush toys, rawhides, rubber squeakies, Kongs etc. It wasn't long before we found out that plush toys were by far her favorite, even though she was a little destructive with them at first (we had to keep an eye out with the toys; as soon as one would get torn, it would go into the "to be sewn" basket)...

So of course being the doting "parents" that we are, she has since (in about 18 months) amassed a "stuffed toy" collection that rivals any human child's... If we go to the grocery store, heaven forbid that we go down the pet aisle, because more often than not, some adorable stuffed thing finds its way into our cart-- I'm sure many of you know how that goes!!

Anyway, our pup had such a variety of toys to put into her mouth, she thankfully never developed a taste for shoes, or electrical cords, or anything else she's not supposed to have. (The only exception is DH's dirty socks and underwear, but that's been an incentive for him to throw his dirty clothes into the hamper, which has worked out great if you ask me!)

Variety is the spice of life, as they say... I imagine dogs get bored with the same old stuff just like people would. So be sure to give your pup a wide variety of playthings; it will certainly help keep her mind off your non-toys!

(Not that this is a replacement for teaching "leave it" by any means, but I think it DOES help!)

Are you saying your puppy has free range of the house while you're not there to supervise? If so the puppy will find ways to amuse him/herself that you haven't thought of.

Oh, gosh, Quirky--absolutely not!

It's a Cairn terrier; I know that they are naturally very smart, inquisitive dogs; she is about four and a half months old.

She has toys--the Kong, a lookalike Kong (she loves those 2 things), tennis balls, squeaky toys, harder teething rings. I have bought her some fleecy stuffed toys but haven't tried those yet. A friend gave me some of the Booda puppy bones; maybe she's ready for those. I also have a toy that freezes and she can chomp on that. And she loves chasing an old soda bottle (she plays so hard with it and just flops afterward; very funny!).

She doesn't have the run of the house--just the combined LR/DR/Entry and small kitchen (which I gated) off the entry when I am home with her (from the time she wakes up until about 4 p.m., and then from about midnite through nighttime; I keep her up a bit later than most people would because of my night schedule, and because she naps while I'm gone at work--like what happens with lots of other dog owners--I give her more playtime when I get home; also was hoping she'd sleep a bit later in the a.m., but 7:30 a.m.'s been our up-and-outside time).

She is in the crate only for sleeping at night. She didn't really take naps in it when I had it in the kitchen during the day; she'd pull her small fleece blanket out of it and nap on it.

So my eyes are on her as much as possible (both for the chewing issue and to try to figure out her "I need to go outside" signals). I play a lot with her, with balls and the bottle, but occasionally she will still wander over to the cords in the corner when she remembers that they are there. Someone recommended putting some pennies in a soda can and rattling them to get her attention away from them, and that worked a bit today (altho just picking her up and putting her amid her toys works well, too).

I do the "leave it" command on our walks, when she wants to sniff at the wrong thing for too long or pick up branches--she's good at that (along with giving her a slight tug on the leash to "redirect" here). I will start using it inside, too.

I guess more toys are the answer--and that I am truly the human slave here! LOL!

Thanks!

Our Akita was like that into everything he could get a hold of.The only thing that worked for him was the spray bottle. Now all we have to do is pick it up and he knows he could possibly be getting into trouble and walks away.