Between the ages of four and seven months, puppies begin to lose their milk teeth. At this time, you will notice that your puppy puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, whether it is appropriate or not. Just like human babies, they do this in an attempt to relieve the pain caused by teething.
The most important thing you can do is to puppy-proof all areas where your puppy spends time. Get down on your hands and knees to see things from your puppy's point-of-view. Anything she can reach is a potential chew toy. When possible, remove items from her reach. What you can't remove, should be made unappealing. Try bitter apple spray or hot sauce to discourage chewing.
Never leave your puppy unattended. Crate her when you cannot give her 100% of your attention. Tether her to you when she's not crated; this serves as a reminder to keep your eye on her and prevents her from wandering off. Use an ex-pen or baby gates to limit the area she can reach if you chose not to tether.
Provide your puppy with a variety of safe chew toys, Nylabones, Kongs, and other toys will hold your puppy's attention and provide her with appropriate things to chew. Kongs are wonderful for teething puppies, since they can be filled with goodies and frozen solid. The cold feels great on sore gums and it takes longer to get all of the treats out.
Along those same lines, there are puppy toys that are made much like teething rings for human babies. When using those, examine carefully for pinprick holes, which may allow the liquid to leak out.
If you find your puppy chewing on an inappropriate item, you may be tempted to punish your puppy physically, but this method doesn't work and it will teach your puppy to fear you. Instead, calmly tell her, "No chew," then trade it for something the dog is allowed to have.
Remember to always trade up, giving the dog something more valuable (in her mind) than what she already has. You may have to break out the chicken breast, cheese, hot dogs, or bully sticks to coax her into letting go of something she's really enjoying.
Unless your puppy is chewing on something that will harm him, don't chase after him to take an item away. Doing this makes it a game and there are few games dogs love better than chase and keep-away.
Often, tossing a high-value item a few feet behind you will cause the puppy to drop what she has in order to get to the other item. When she does this, calmly pick up the forbidden item and remove it from the puppy's reach.
In the case of an emergency--like a puppy with a chicken bone, an electrical cord, or a bag of chocolate--startling her is a sure-fire way to make her drop what she has in her mouth. Using a "shake can" (a soda can with a few pennies inside) or an air horn will do the trick.
If you come home to discover that your puppy has chewed your favorite shoes to pieces, chalk it up as a learning lesson for you and skip the scolding; there is a very small window of time to correct a dog after he's done something wrong... approximately 2 seconds.
Any corrections done after that are a waste of your time and energy. They will also stress your puppy, since she has no idea why you're so angry with her, and may make her dread your homecomings.
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