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Puppy’s teeth until they are about six months old, and this does cause some discomfort and chewing on stuff does make the sore gums feel better. So they chew on the furniture, your shoes, the shrubbery and whatever else the puppy can get in their mouths. And the bad news is that the puppy will not ‘outgrow’ this chewing.

So somehow, you need to teach the puppy what is acceptable for chewing and what is not acceptable.

To minimize chewing problems, try to put everything up away from the puppy that he or she might be tempted to chew on. Be sure to keep the trash out of his reach. Ask the children to put their toys and dolls up so they cannot be chewed to little bits and pieces.

Then get some chew toys, and if you catch your puppy chewing on something that he shouldn’t be chewing on, clap your hands or make some kind of loud noise, the offer him an acceptable chew toy instead. Then praise him a lot so he will learn the difference.

Another thing you can do is to make the items he wants to chew on unpleasant. You can coat the furniture with a taste deterrent such as Bitter Apple. Just make sure what ever you use is not having poison in it.

Also if you have to leave the dog while you go somewhere, I strongly recommend training the puppy to a crate. It makes everything much easier, the chewing, the housebreaking and the whole nine yards.

Try different toys with your puppy, The type of toys that can be stuffed with food really gets the puppy’s attention and lets him focus on those toys instead of the chairs. And the chew sticks or chew bones take some time to chew up, so those are great toys.

Another thing that I have found helps to prevent chewing is to keep the puppy or dog busy so that they never pick up the habit. I was lucky though, and did a lot of work etc. outside and the dogs always came with me. But also try not to let the puppy be alone in the house where there might be tempting things to chew. And exercise the puppy so that when he is in the house, he wants to sleep.