Your 11-month-old dog is still chewing because chewing is a deeply ingrained natural behavior, not just a teething phase. While most dogs have their full set of 42 adult teeth by 7 or 8 months, chewing at 11 months is driven by adolescent exploration, jaw development, boredom, anxiety, or some combination of all four. The good news: this is completely normal, and it’s manageable.
Teething Is Over, but Chewing Isn’t
Many owners assume chewing should stop once the baby teeth are gone. But teething was only one of several reasons your puppy chewed. Dogs also chew for exploration, jaw strengthening, stress relief, and plain entertainment. Once the adult teeth settle in around 7 to 8 months, the teething discomfort fades, but every other motivation stays.
There’s one exception worth checking, especially if you have a small or flat-faced breed. Some dogs retain baby teeth that never fell out on their own. Bulldogs, pugs, Boston terriers, and boxers are particularly prone to this. Retained baby teeth can press against adult teeth or irritate gum tissue, causing pain that makes a dog chew more to find relief. If you can count more than 42 teeth or see two teeth crowded into the same spot, that’s worth a vet visit.
Adolescent Dogs Explore With Their Mouths
At 11 months, your dog is a teenager. Canine adolescence typically runs from about 6 months to 18 months (longer in large breeds), and it comes with a spike in curiosity, energy, and boundary-testing. Chewing is tied to feeding instincts, environmental exploration, and learning. Your dog is literally gathering information about the world through their mouth, the same way a toddler grabs everything within reach.
Dogs also have a powerful sense of smell that drives them toward objects with interesting scents. That’s why your shoes, remote controls, and couch cushions are so appealing: they carry your scent, food residue, or novel odors from outside. Your dog isn’t being spiteful. They’re investigating.
Boredom and Anxiety Look Different
Not all destructive chewing comes from the same place, and the distinction matters because the solutions are different. A bored dog chews because there’s nothing better to do. This type of chewing tends to happen throughout the day, whether you’re home or not, and targets whatever is within reach. The fix is more physical exercise, mental stimulation, and access to appropriate chew toys.
Anxiety-driven chewing looks different. Dogs who chew from separation anxiety typically only destroy things when left alone, or chew far more intensely during those periods. You’ll usually see other signs alongside it: whining, barking, pacing, restlessness, or having accidents indoors despite being house-trained. Stress chewing can also be triggered by specific situations, like being crated near an animal they don’t like or being confined in an unfamiliar space. If the destruction happens exclusively when you’re away and comes with these other behaviors, you’re likely dealing with anxiety rather than boredom.
Rule Out Medical Causes
In some cases, persistent chewing (especially chewing and swallowing non-food items like fabric, rocks, or drywall) points to a condition called pica. This can stem from nutritional deficiencies, gastrointestinal issues, or compulsive behavior. Some dogs eat soil when they’re low on certain minerals, for example. If your dog isn’t just gnawing on objects but actively ingesting things that aren’t food, or if the chewing seems obsessive and hard to interrupt, a veterinary check can rule out underlying medical problems before you focus purely on training.
How to Redirect the Chewing
The most effective approach is simple: remove the wrong thing, offer the right thing, and reward the switch. When you catch your dog chewing something off-limits, don’t yell or punish. Just take the object away, hand them an appropriate toy, and praise them when they chew it instead. Punishment tends to make dogs sneakier about chewing rather than stopping the behavior, and it can increase anxiety-driven chewing.
Consistency matters more than any single technique. Every person in the household needs to follow the same routine, and you need to do it every time. Over days and weeks, your dog learns which items earn attention and rewards and which ones simply vanish from their mouth.
Choosing the Right Chew Toys
At 11 months, your dog’s jaw is significantly stronger than it was at four months, and many puppy toys won’t hold up. But going too hard is dangerous. Bones, antlers, yak milk chews, sticks, and rawhides can fracture teeth or cause blockages. A good rule of thumb: the chew should be bigger than your dog’s snout and slightly wider than their mouth, making it impossible to swallow in chunks. Rubber toys designed for strong chewers, stuffable toys you can fill with frozen food, and rope toys for supervised play are generally safer options for adolescent dogs.
Scented toys can be especially effective. Dogs are drawn to interesting smells, so a toy that carries a food scent or novel odor will compete more successfully with your furniture for your dog’s attention.
Bitter Sprays as a Backup
Taste deterrent sprays use bitter or spicy flavors that most dogs find unpleasant. Bitter apple is the most common. These sprays work best as a safety net for specific items you can’t move out of reach, like baseboards or chair legs, not as your primary strategy. Some dogs don’t mind the taste at all, so test it first. Spray a cotton ball, let your dog sniff and lick it, and watch the reaction. If they walk away, it’ll likely work on your furniture too.
Managing the Environment
Prevention is easier than correction. Pick up shoes, put remotes in drawers, use baby gates to limit access to rooms with tempting furniture, and keep trash cans behind closed doors. The fewer mistakes your dog can make, the faster they learn which objects are actually theirs. This isn’t a permanent lifestyle change. It’s a bridge to get through the adolescent phase while your training takes hold.
Exercise plays a huge role too. An 11-month-old dog with pent-up energy will find an outlet, and chewing is one of the easiest ones available. A tired dog after a long walk, a game of fetch, or a training session that works their brain is far less likely to dismantle your couch cushions. Puzzle feeders and food-dispensing toys are particularly useful because they channel the chewing instinct toward something productive and keep your dog occupied for 20 to 30 minutes at a stretch.
When It Typically Slows Down
Most dogs show a noticeable drop in destructive chewing between 18 months and 2 years as they leave adolescence behind. Large and giant breeds can take closer to 2 to 3 years to fully mature. Chewing itself never disappears entirely because it’s a normal, healthy canine behavior. But the frantic, indiscriminate, everything-is-a-target phase does pass. With consistent redirection, the right toys, and enough physical and mental exercise, you’ll get through it with most of your belongings intact.