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8 months old


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Orbit is almost 8 months old and a wonderful and fun pup. At 3 months we crated him whenever he was not directly supervised and over the next few months gave him more and more freedom. We have gotten to the point where he is loose at night (no issues there so far) and if well exercised, he will be out for 4-5 hours at a time. We never really had any inappropriare chewing issues - he gets bones and kongs with PB. It looks to me (visually at least) that his teeth are in.

 

However, last night he took a tube of hand cream off my night table (that has been there for months) and chewed the corner off and today he found the dust pan (that has also been there for months) and chewed the corner off. So i am wondering if teething or some pain/irritation still occurs at his age? Is it a behaviour thing? He has just started to mark occasionally when outdoors. Could those two be related? I have heard that when they are teenagers they get difficult but other than those 2 incidences, he is great. Any other changes i can expect at this age?

 

Thank you!

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Sounds to me like he is just being an 8 month old PITA. Besides exercise he may be craving some mental challenges. try teaching him new commands, or placing his toys in situations he has to think to find them or get to them. This may help wear his little brain out and lessen the chewing. :rolleyes:

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Thanks for the suggestion. I have actually been doing some tricks with him because he is really starting to develop some focus. I guess it just caught me off guard that the change seemed so sudden from one day to the next - that's why i thought it might be physical. He is my first pup so not sure what to expect. But both of the chewing incidences have come at times when he should have been tired. Once after being with my parents for hours (non-stop play which usually results in dead to the world exhaustion) and the other about a half hour after an outing.

 

How do their needs change as they change from little puppy to older puppy? Is this a sort of threshold when they start to need different things?

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As I understand it (please correct me if I am wrong) sitting and chewing is an unwinding brain working experience. Maybe chewing is his way of "reading a good book," after a long day of work. It might be handy to give him something to chew after days where he runs around like crazy, or play simple games that aren't physical that work his brain. His brain just may need to focus and relax after all that fun.

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As I understand it (please correct me if I am wrong) sitting and chewing is an unwinding brain working experience. Maybe chewing is his way of "reading a good book," after a long day of work.

 

I've noticed Scooter will go find his bone at the end of a long day, chew on it for a while, then fall asleep with the bone under his chin. I'm thinking maybe I should try it! :rolleyes:

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Orbit gets fed raw so most days he has a good sized bone to chew on. He will usually go back to it a few times before he decides its done (sometimes he will keep it for a couple of days). He has a hollow rubber kong but will only work on it if there is peanut butter in it and i usually put it in the freezer. He is a huge fan of tennis balls that have a hole and of course his frisbee. I would also love suggestions as to good toys/products that are safe and fun for them to chew.

 

As a side note, he went through a phase where he could not settle himself down after a walk (much like a hyper child) and i would have to put him in the crate for a few minutes to force him to settle before letting him out to nap. But then he got pretty good at just chilling on his own. But lately he has upped the full of beans factor, so yesterday after our walk we did about 10 minutes of trick training (after the suggestion that maybe he needed more brain exercise)and it konked him right out. So i guess he isn't feeling stimulated enough on our forest romps or else he is so tired that he can't quite turn himself off. You guys are great with the tips.

 

Thanks!!

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From what I understand, the back molars are "settling in" between 8 and 9 months, explaining the very common peak in chewing at that time. This idea is confirmed by my students with dogs in this age range.

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