Destructive chewing

Getting a new dog or puppy in the family means 2 things - learning how much a dog knows and teaching correct house manners to the dog or puppy. This often entails housebreaking or re-enforcement of housebreaking habit and finding out if the dog or puppy has any destructive tendencies.

I don't know why, but I manage to adopt dogs that have a chewing habit. This is not something related to teething or being a puppy, no this is in older dogs. I have had a dog who loved to chew plastic. Another dog that loved to chew carpet and yet another who would go into the dirty laundry hamper and find dirty under pants and chew a hole where the stains use to be. All of that was very destructive but not as destructive as a Beagle that my friend owned. That dog would chew on her shoes as soon as she left the house. She got to the point of locking up the shoes and the dog almost chewed a hole in the closet door. She almost got rid of the dog when he destroyed a pair of expensive riding boots. When she saw what the dog did to her equestrian boots she almost called the local rescue to find him another home. Then I talked to her and had her buy the dog a few pairs of used shoes from Goodwill. I told her to leave them out for him to chew on and he would leave her shoes alone. To her surprise - it worked.