What is it with dogs and eating shoes?

Your new puppy could be
-Teething
-Could need stimulation of gums
-Gums may be itchy
-May really like the taste of your shoes
Could be anxious

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out for more details!

What’s the breed of your puppy? :)
Good luck with training! It won’t last forever. We put all our shoes out reach of our puppy and if he does chew on our shoes (which he rarely does since he’s older now) you can see he feels guilty.

*EDIT: I think that my 2 year old Labrador Retriever enjoyed chewing our shoes when he was frustrated. If we didn’t pay enough attention to him, he would get bored and chew our shoes. Now that we play with him everyday, he gets tired and falls asleep and doesn’t have time for chewing anything.

Thanks. Even though this is my first dog I did figure out, pretty much within the first 15 minutes, that if I didn’t want her to eat my shoes I shouldn’t leave them lying around where she could get to them :-); it’s just that even though I have done a fair amount of puppy proofing there are still a number of things that she could chew on and destroy if she wanted to and there are really only two things that she seems to be compelled to chew on and those are my shoes and paper. I don’t know what that’s about either. So my shoes, the deed to my house, irreplaceable family photographs, etc. will be kept out of her reach. I was just wondering what was up with the shoes. It just seems so stereotypical, yet there she is, trying to gnaw my Crocs into bits if I am so foolish and forgetful as to leave them on the floor.

I’m sorry if I just spit out the obvious…haha. Crocs are rubbery, as you mentioned, and babies also enjoy chewing on things that are rubbery when they’re teething. Perhaps she is teething.

@naivete LOL. And I’m sorry I came back with such a smartass answer. Sometimes I just can’t help myself and seeing as Lizzie, my puppy, really is my first dog I really shouldn’t be smartassing people who are only trying to help. I need all you dog people on my side if I want to do things right, and I do. It’s just that the shoe thing, it’s so stereotypical and there are other things she could be getting into but she wants the shoes. That’s really all I was asking. And maybe it is the rubbery thing. Both the Crocs and my Marshall’s Earth shoes have that same rubbery sole. One of my cats used to like a particular kind of foam rubber; the kind that flip-flops and those foam safety knee pads they sell at places like Lowes and Home Depot are made of. He would spend hours obsessively digging his claws into that stuff until it looked like it had been fired on by thousands of very tiny automatic weapons with tiny bullets. Just lots and lost of little holes in the stuff.

My puppy ate the left foot of a brand new pair of shoes. So, I bought another pair and put them on a high shelf. He jumped from the back of the lounge to get them and chewed up the left shoe again! So… I gave up and didn’t buy any more of those shoes.

I don’t know why they chew shoes apart from they are babies and need to chew.

The main reason puppies like to chew is the same reason human babies like to chew ..teething.

The best you can do for your puppy, in this regard, is:
– anything you don’t want her to chew, keep it out of reach
– buy toys that do not look like these items (no rawhide either; it is similar to leather)
– make sure you use these toys to play with her; and play with her often so she does not get bored (bored dogs are much more destructable ..lol)
– if she manages to get something, such as your shoe, correct her and give her one of her toys (or a treat).
– if she gets your shoe and runs away from you with it, do not chase after her (that turns it into a game); instead, call her and offer her a treat or one of her toys.
– be consistent with your training (extremely important)

There are other reasons adult dogs chew shoes but for most puppies it’s the teething. Your shoes smell like you and are fun to chew ..your dog isn’t out to destroy them; she just wants to experience them :)

It is very important that you break her out of this habit early though, as it becomes an addictive behaviour in time.

By the way, paper is fun to chew because it rips easy and makes sound when she destroys it.

This is one reason why crate training is invaluable. When you can’t be watching, pop it in its crate and the pup and your house are both safe. You have to consider, power cords to lamps etc. are also rubbery and if he chews one of those, he’s gonna get a fair zap or worse.

Thank you everyone for you answers but I think @PluckyDog has come as close to answering my question as possible. I get why puppies chew, I was just kind of wondering why specifically my shoes and as an aside, why paper. Those are the only things she has really shown an interest in chewing. Though I am puppy proofed to a certain extent there are delicious, rubbery things that she could be getting into like the rubbery parts of the dustpan which is with her reach but she chooses not to go after it. But, as the aptly named @PluckyDog points out, the shoes smell like me; I imagine the dustpan, not so much so that does kind of explain her interest in chewing shoes, which was what my question was about, as opposed to her chewing everything just because she is teetthing.
But again, thanks for everyone’s help. As I mentioned, Lizzie is my first dog and I can use all the help I can get.

I agree with @PluckyDog in that your scent is probably a big reason why your pup chose your shoes. Your puppy has bonded with you, and wants to be around you as much as possible if she is anything like the three dogs I’ve had. If she can’t have you, she’ll settle for your shoes! (Or your old t-shirts, underwear, etc.)

Then, of course, there’s also the teething bit…

Dogs tend to get attracted to smelly things and since shoes usually get stinky very easily, they chew on shoes. Or, there could be something in the shoe they’re attracted to. Also, the material of the shoe could be something that the dog might chew on or be attracted too. I know I repeated a lot of words but, do you understand what im saying?

Yep. I vote for the scent too. My adult dog likes to carry around my rankest smelly slippers whenever he can find them.

Here’s a freebie puppy tip from me to you: Close your bathroom door during a certain time of the month. There are probably more embarrassing things than having your dog proudly parade a used hygiene product in front of your dinner guests, but it rates way up there on the Let the Earth open up and swallow me now scale.

@Blueroses LOL. Thanks for the tip but, for better or worse, I have aged out of, by a couple of years, the possibility of that hideously embarrassing ultimate hostess nightmare. But oh my god! If the earth didn’t swallow me up fast enough, that is the only circumstance I can imagine where I would seriously consider self-immolation.

Teething. Put up your shoes, wrap furniture legs with something, anything that will withstand their little rachet/razor teeth, store away rugs and nice bedding.

My little doggie used to love men’s Italian leather shoes, antique rugs from Turkmenistan, expensive duvet covers and down comforters.

I definitely can back up @Blueroses about keeping the bathroom doors closed and waste cans out of reach.

@Neizvestnaya But she seems to be leaving everything else alone that’s why I asked specifically about shoes. She WANTS MY SHOES! I had her gated up in the kitchen earlier today and I accidentally left the gate door open; I thought she had gotten loose in the house but all she did was go out, retrieve one of my Crocs, which were on the other side of the gate and bring it back into the kitchen where, with the gate door wide open, she sat happily chewing on my shoe.

Your shoes have concentrated YOU oils on them, all your adventures in those shoes are condensed for her little brain, received by a doggie nose that smells parts per billion. :D

Thanks @Neizvestnaya. Just the idea that my new puppy, my new best friend, might already love me down to my parts per billion is such a kick.

I have to say…we have an 8 month old Beagle. He is killing me.
He has eaten…at least 5 pairs of flip flops. My cute bow heels. Black strappy wedges. A brown pair of my sons shoes. He got to his sneakers but didn’t destroy them..messed with a strap though.
He must hate me because he destroys my shoes daily. We keep them on top of the dining room table or the dryer now, but he is this super high jumper and can now get to the things on the dining room table (such as a big packet of photos I just had printed…insert fury.)
He eats dinosaur toys, mainly the tails and feet. He eats ALL my childrens books. I put as much up as possible, heck even bought a pair of shoes for him to chew yet he destroys everything every day we go out…doesn’t matter how long we are out. I’m so so frustrated.

I give him bones, teething toys, ice (which he loves), balls, peanut butter on a Kong toy….nothing works! he still eats our stuff!

@casheroo: Get him some new toys like mini plush animals, the rope thingie with a knot in it and as gross as it seems, rub them under your armpits (all of you on each toy) and/or feet and then give them to the puppy. Get some old towels or dollar store hand towels you all can a take a turn wiping down with after a shower or bath and throw that into the puppy’s bed/pen/crate.
Nothing makes our dogs (even older now) so happy as when we let them have a stinky old tshirt from the laundry pile, nice and ripe.

@casheroo Hound puppies require the patience of a saint and the ability to let go of caring about your possessions. A wire crate could be your best friend!

Wow! After hearing @casheroo‘s story I am even more grateful that my puppy really only seems to be interested in my shoes. And @Neizvestnaya, I had actually considered doing something like that; sticking the little rubber chew toy she really doesn’t seem to care for inside one of my shoes for a while and see if that sparks an interest in it. Now I’m definitely going to give that a try and maybe the armpit thing too. :-)

Lol, throughout my life, I have always had at least one dog around. So I have many dog stories of destruction.

@casheroo reminds me of a story:

When I was a teen, we had several dogs. One of them was an abused female pitbull that we rescued. After she became an outgoing and happy dog, she liked to sleep in my bedroom. One day, I came home from school to find her locked in my bedroom (my mom had put her in there for some reason) ..laying in what used to be my bed. There was fluff, foam, and material everywhere ..seriously, she literally tore my bed to shreds. Lol, she just looked up at me like “Hi there!” ..I have a picture of it somewhere too.

My mom had a Saint Bernard puppy for awhile too, now that dog chewed everything. He ripped the seat off of my bicycle. He chewed right through one of the deck posts. One time he chewed through the front door (he was kept outside on her small acreage) and we came home to all the living room furniture shreded. He was around 6 months old.

@Neizvestnaya that is a great suggestion :)

And, I agree with @Blueroses, hounds require extreme patience and really do need to be trained well.