Tuggy Is plucking my nerves today...

[TugsMommy]

I was home sick today from work. In the last few days, instead of playing with his 3 million toys he has, he has been chewing on my shoes. The shoe count is now:
Wedding Sandals
Casual Shoes
2 pairs of boots and one pair of sneakers.

I keep the shoes in the closet, but the smart little monster has learned to open the closet door. I can't afford to keep on buying new shoes.
I think he knows I am aggravated with him, because he just came up and licked my hand, then went back to the shoes. I did swat him today for starting on a new pair of heels. He dropped them...

He is 10 months old..DO they ever grow out of the shoe eating. This has only been in the last couple of weeks. Maybe he is teeting again. :(

 

[swatman]

Sorry I don't know if they grow out of this, probably have to be trained out of them but none of my boxers have ever eaten shoes, although anything else was fair game. Maybe, if you have round door knobs you could get the child proof covers for knobs, maybe a short term solution. Good luck
Mike
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Kaiser 1989-2000 beautiful flashy fawn boy, waiting at the bridge
Gunther 1999-2004 beautiful flashy brindle boy, waiting at the bridge
Jacquets Ramos 8 mo old flashy brindle crazyman

 

[tyson&ali]

No shoe eaters in our house thank goodness! One thing I heard once that supposedly works is to keep your shoes in the boxes they came in!?! Also we keep around lots of chew things to keep Ali busy! Figure out what besides shoes he likes to chew on, take away the forbidden item and replace it with a correct chewing item!

 

[MOMMA KAREN]

Mikey is a shoe eater and he is almost 5!!!. He loves the stinky insoles, yuk! He has also munched on my husband's wallet and his ball caps. He has toys and Kongs full of treats, but nothing compares to a good old shoe. Fortunately for us, Mikey hasn't figured out how to open the closet doors yet. I guess they never outgrow this stage. My advice is put baby-proof locks on the closet doors.

 

[Sidda1018]

We have shoe eaters too. :( Luckily they don't know how to open the closet door. We just keep our shoes out of boxer eyesight.

I would try the child proof door knob things. You might try double sided tape or aluminum foil on the knob...something your dog doesn't like the feel of to make him avoid it.

Good luck and happy shoe shopping....

 

[Faughtey]

10 Months old? He is going through his terrible teens right now. No telling how long it may last. I'd go with some of the above ideas: re-direct to toys, dog proof closet door, and make sure to tire him out with play. A tired puppy is a good puppy.

 

[Julie P.]

We rescued our boxer when he was 18 months old. At first, we had a very difficult time with shoe chewing. To break him of the problem, I decided to put a pair of shoes/slippers in the middle of the floor while I was doing something like watching a movie or eating dinner. Every time Deeg came close to sniffing the shoe or even looking like he was interested in it, I'd say "NO, Shame on you" and change my face expression to look very serious. Immediatly afterwards, I would direct him to one of his toys. We usually did this is sets of four, give him a break, then put the shoe back in the middle of what ever we were doing again. He now ingores shoes. I think he use to like the reacion he'd get out of us before we decided to train him this way.