She is crated when we leave for the day, and I haven't because this is a new behavior that just started less than a month ago.

I agree with Salti, but only as a very short-term solution. My dog chews everything in sight and we finally found a trainer who is working with him now. This behavior is triggered by anxiety and involves several approaches, including basic training and altering owner-dog leadership dynamics. The trainer assures us that eventually we will be able to leave our uncrated non-destructive dog in the house alone.

What breed of dog do you have?. Some breeds chew because they are bored. A simple fix may be to just make sure your dog is getting ample exercise.

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I would guess that the dog is probably bored. It's a young dog and is most likely not getting as much exercise as it needs. Just because we like sitting around doesn't mean our dogs enjoy it! :) We go to the dog park for at least an hour and then on a 3 mile walk every day and she still sometimes gets bored. Usually a 10 minute sniff around every couple hours helps.

If your dog enjoys or needs more exercise than you can provide, doggy day care is your friend. Our Vet told us when we first brought our girl home, a tired dog is a happy dog, keep her tired and she won't chew.. She was right!. Ellie's five years old now and has never ever chewed or destroyed anything in our home, not even as a puppy (and because I'm not a fan, we have never "crated" in the traditional sense). It's not as expensive as one might assume, some kennels have 1/2 day rates too. Crating may solve the issue for you, but if he/she is just bored, it certainly won't fix the problem for your dog.

My dogs when puppies ate all the baseboard in the kitchen. Twice. Then the legs and stretcher bars off one of the kitchen chairs, in under an hour. Of course their beds, too. Young dogs like to chew. Long walks, twice a day if need be. It could be anxiety, boredom, or loneliness, or sometimes you just have a hard-core chewer on your hands. Dogs are generally high-energy creatures. They need to do something with that energy. Figure out the issue and work from there.

I agree with Hoovb that young dogs like to chew, they're teething so it's a natural reaction. However, as a dog owner, it really is your job to show it what it can chew and to ensure that it's properly exercised.

I think with the majority of dogs, if you start young and are consistent with your training and exercise, you will be much more successful in avoiding a lot of bad behaviors your currently seeing.