How to stop 1 yr old pup chewing flooring and skirting boards?

echosound

OK, I have a female westie, just hitting the one year old mark, and most of the time she's pretty good and well trained. However, once in a while she'll return to her younger puppy ways of chewing stuff up - she's got a few chew toys which normally keep her happy, but I find that sometimes as night she'll get a notion - and here's my problem: How to stop her doing this.

We have two dogs, her and a female pug cross, and they get on great together and sleep together at night. Their bed is in the utility room, where they have paper to toilet on, and drinking water, and a comfy cosy bed.

They're only in there overnight (ie from around 12 am to 8am) and are let out first thing in the morning, and are exercised and played with. However, some mornings I have come down to find she has managed to tear up the edges of the lino floor covering and has chewed strips out of it, and as for the skirting boards - they get chewed on occasionally too. I just want to know if any of you have any tips or tricks to get a young dog to stop chewing on certain things? I put her chew toy in with her at night in case she gets the urge to go a-chomping, but she seems to prefer being destructive to the lino, and I'm going to have to replace it now and I don't want a repeat occurrence with the new floor covering or the new skirting boards.

Is it just a phase she's going through? I am hoping it's not because she is bored, as I can't entertain her 24 hours a day! She's in there for the minimum time possible while we're in bed asleep ourselves, and our other (older) dog never stirs all night and is quite happy asleep for that period. They have the run of the garden all day long if they want, and are walked, but could it be she still has too much energy to burn off at night?
Our older dog used to be allowed the run of the downstairs at night, sleeping in her favourite spot on a couch, but obviously we can't allow the puppy free range as I don't know what we'd come down to find chewed to bits, so they both sleep together now at night shut into the room too keep the pup from destroying other stuff.

We can't get an outdoor kennel for them, as the older dog has been an indoor dog all her life and the cold would not be good for her, and the pup is used to being indoors at night too now so would howl her head off if we put her out alone.
I supposed the only other option to us might be a large cage or crate? ie Enough room for the big bed and a toilet area, but which will keep her from gaining access to the edges of the floorcovering. I'd prefer to see if there's anything we can do to stop her chewing (someone suggested putting mustard on it but she's such a dustbin she liked the taste!) as the room is not large and you have to access the garden through the utility room so a large cage would block the door and have to be moved each time we wanted to let them out or to go out ourselves.

Anyone got any good tips to stop the chewing before I go to the expense of replacing the flooring and skirting boards for her to ruin again?Thanks in advance:)

cowzerp

Give him toys to chew and stuff that will keep him entertained, like a baby he will be teething!

EGAR

It would be a rare dog indeed if it was teething at 1 year old .

Try a Kong stuffed with goodies for her to fish out, or a marrow bone to give her something to sink her teeth into.

echosound

Might try the kong alright, good idea! Have got heavy rubber mats to lay down at the patches she seems to go for, they're keeping her away from the lino for the moment at least. Cheers.

jameshayes

you can rub a mix of nasty tasting watery liquid into the side of the mat... what I use;

-oil, pepper, chilli powder...

Just rub it into where she chews with your fingers and she wont fancy doing it again...

star-pants

Yup - oil & tabasco -- although be aware - My friend had 3 labs and they loved it!!