Biotic's Gain

Because chewing is a normal canine need rather than a behavioural fault, and most dogs who chew the wrong things simply have nothing better on offer. Puppies chew while adult teeth are coming through and while they are working out what the world is made of. Grown dogs chew to settle, to pass time, and because the action itself is satisfying. A dog left with an empty afternoon, a quiet house and a reachable skirting board will use the skirting board. The answer is rarely a telling-off: it is giving the habit somewhere legal to go, managing what is within reach while that happens, and recognising the smaller number of cases where sudden destruction is about distress rather than boredom.

What chewing actually does for a dog

It is easy to read chewing as naughtiness because of what it costs, but it is closer to a hobby than a crime. Dogs explore with their mouths in the way people explore with their hands, and the jaw action of working at something resistant is calming in itself. That is why a dog who has been wound up by visitors or a noisy street will often take a chew into a corner and go quiet over it. The chewing is the settling.

It also fills time, and dogs have a great deal of it. Most pet dogs sleep through a large part of the day, but the waking gaps still have to go somewhere, and a dog with nothing to do will invent a job. Chewing is the easiest job available in an average front room. None of that makes a chewed sofa arm acceptable; it does mean the behaviour will not be removed, only redirected.

Puppies and adults are two different problems

A puppy’s chewing peaks while the baby teeth are being replaced, broadly between about three and seven months, and a sore mouth makes almost anything worth trying. That phase passes. What often does not pass is the habit it leaves behind: a dog who spent four months learning that chair legs are interesting has learned something about chair legs, not just about teething. Adolescence frequently brings a second wave, as does any period of being under-occupied.

An adult dog who suddenly starts chewing after years of leaving the furniture alone is a different conversation. That is a change in behaviour, and changes have causes: less exercise than before, a new routine, something painful in the mouth, or stress in the household. The same goes for a dog whose chewing is coupled with mouthing at hands, which why dogs mouth and nip in play covers separately.

Why they pick what they pick

Dogs are not choosing the expensive items out of spite. They are choosing by texture and by smell, and the two together explain most of it.

Texture first: dogs favour things with give, things that yield slightly and then resist. Shoes, remote controls, cushion corners, table legs and skirting boards all fit that description better than most toys do. Then smell. Shoes, slippers, the arm of the chair you always sit in and anything that has been in your hands all carry your scent heavily, which is exactly what makes them appealing to a dog who has spent the afternoon alone. It is not revenge; it is the opposite.

One more factor keeps the wrong items at the top of the list: reaction. A dog who picks up a toy gets nothing, and a dog who picks up a phone charger gets four people standing up at once. For a bored dog, a chase around the kitchen table is excellent value, and the lesson learned is about which items produce company.

What to give instead

• Offer more than one texture. Dogs have preferences and they vary. A rubber toy, something fabric, something you can stuff and something hard-but-not-too-hard gives you a chance of finding what your dog actually wants.
• Rotate them. Four toys out all the time are four boring toys. The same four on a weekly rotation stay interesting, for the cost of a cupboard shelf.
• Make food the chew. A stuffed and frozen rubber toy occupies most dogs far longer than a dry one, and a portion of the daily food delivered that way costs nothing extra.
• Time it deliberately. Give the good chew at the point you want quiet — before you sit down to work, when you leave the room, when the children come home. A chew handed out after the sofa has been started teaches the wrong sequence.
• Mind the size and the supervision. Anything small enough to swallow whole, or chewed down to that size, needs taking away, and it is worth watching how your dog uses a new item before leaving them alone with it.
• Be careful with very hard items. Cooked bones splinter and should never be given at all. Some very hard chews are tough on teeth, and anything that comes apart in large pieces is a swallowing risk. If you are unsure whether something suits your dog’s mouth or breed, ask your vet.
• Use the nose as well as the jaw. Scatter-feeding a handful of kibble in the garden, or a cardboard box with food hidden in it, drains the same restless energy that chewing is spending.

Managing the house while the habit changes

Training takes weeks or months. A chewed cable takes four seconds. Management is what covers the difference, and there is nothing second-rate about it.

• Shrink the available world. A pen, a crate the dog genuinely likes, or one dog-proofed room while you are out is easier than making a whole house safe.
• Deal with cables first. Chargers, lamp flexes and extension leads are the one category where the risk is immediate rather than expensive. Route them out of reach or box them in.
• Put the obvious temptations away. Shoes in a cupboard, remote controls on a shelf, bags off the floor. Tidying is not giving in.
• Swap, do not grab. Offer something better, let them drop what they have, hand over the swap. A dog who learns that giving things up pays will hand over a slipper rather than run off with it.
• Do not tell off after the event. Coming home to a chewed cushion and shouting teaches a dog that you are unpredictable on arrival, not that cushions are off limits an hour ago.
• Check the exercise side of it. A dog who is short of walking and sniffing chews more, and how much exercise a dog actually needs is the place to start if the day has got shorter without anyone noticing.

When it is distress rather than boredom

There is a pattern worth knowing, because it needs a different approach entirely. Chewing that happens only when the dog is alone, that concentrates on doors, door frames, window sills and the route out of the house, and that comes alongside pacing, howling, scratching at exits, drooling or soiling, is not an occupation problem. Chewing that starts within minutes of the door closing points the same way.

Adding chew toys will not touch that, and nor will more exercise on its own. Building up time apart is the groundwork, and telling an anxious dog from a bored one is the first thing to settle. If the picture fits, speak to your vet, who can rule out physical causes and refer you to a qualified behaviourist. Our other plain-English guides on settling and routine sit on the anxiety topic page.

When to speak to your vet

• If you think your dog has swallowed fabric, a squeaker, a bone fragment, plastic or anything else that could cause a blockage, ring straight away and do not wait for symptoms
• Retching without bringing anything up, a hard or swollen tummy, or repeated vomiting, which is an emergency worth ringing out of hours for
• Bleeding from the mouth, a broken or loose tooth, or a dog suddenly dropping food or chewing on one side only
• Chewing that begins or worsens suddenly in an adult dog who was never destructive before
• Persistent chewing or licking at paws, flanks or a single spot, which is a different behaviour from chewing objects
• Any interest in stones, soil, metal or other non-food items, which is worth a conversation rather than a management plan
• Destruction alongside distress when left alone, where a vet visit comes before any training plan

Where the Calming Chews sit

Biotic’s Gain Dog Calming Chews are a complementary feed in a soft chew containing L-theanine, given to the guide on the pack by your dog’s weight and alongside a complete, balanced diet. A complementary feed is food rather than medicine: it cannot treat, prevent or cure anything, and nothing in a tub teaches a dog which items in a room are theirs or fills an empty afternoon.

They come up here because owners often ask about them after finding a chewed door frame, and the honest answer is that a chew belongs to a steady daily routine rather than to a destruction problem. What changes the chewing is what the dog is given to do, what is left within reach, and in the distress cases, proper help. Speak to your vet before adding anything new, particularly if your dog is unwell, pregnant, or receiving medication.

Biotic’s Gain chews are a complementary feed for dogs, not a medicine. A complementary feed cannot treat, prevent or cure any condition and should be fed alongside a complete, balanced diet. Follow the feeding guide on the pack, and speak to your vet before adding anything new to your dog’s routine, particularly if your dog is unwell, pregnant, or receiving medication.