Chewing??

HELP

Heidi is still chewing anything she can get her paws on. She is 10 months old should she still be teething??
it isn't a case of not leaving things lying around or not watching her, as tonight (for example) she was lying by my feet asleep when she rolled over and started chewing at the wooden bar along the bottom of my sofa, luckily i was able to stop her straight away.

I've had her to the vets and she has no issues with her teeth, she has even managed to pull wallpaper off in the MIDDLE of the strip, it's not like she managed to grab a hold of a bit that was coming away in the corner!??!??!

she will also stand and stare at the walls for no reason??
HELP

My usual recommendation -- if you do not own Ian Dunbar's book Before and After You get your Puppy, please buy it right away (easily available from Amazon.co.uk).

This is totally normal behaviour for a young dog. Most dogs only start to chew when teething and it goes on til 12-18 months, typically. Some dogs are chewers all their lives. It is a management issue and is often also related to understimulation and boredom (eg a dog that has other interesting things to do, won't be chewing on things except her chew toys). If you don't want her chewing things that are not her toys, keep things off the floor, limit her access to rooms where she chews on things you don't want her to chew on, train away from this by distracting and swapping an item she can chew on, like a nylabone (never punish!), and use bitter sprays on furniture etc (though these only sometimes work for people -- they didn't for me). Give her lots of exercise (an hour of brisk walking daily or energetic playing fetch etc) and daily obedience work to tire out mind and body so she doesn't turn to chewing out of boredom.

She is exactly the age when dogs chew most. That is why having a good manual to consult would greatly help so you wouldn't get worried about normal behaviour and will have some good training tactics for addressing this.

On staring at the walls -- maybe she hears something in them. If not -- then I'd keep an eye on this -- it may be related to flycatching and other neurological issues that are not well understood, where dogs think they see things that are not there. If this is a trancelike state -- I'd definitely keep an eye on it and if it continues, maybe talk to your vet about whether to see a neurologist.

yes Karlin it's more of a trance stare that a "daydreaming" state if that makes sense and she can hold this stance for up to 10 mins!!!!.

She can sometimes be nose to wall when she does this.

she has 2 walks a day and lots of play time with Harry(and the neighbours dogs) but she is that bad for chewing that i have to put her in her crate even when i nip to the toilet!!