I will occasionally get a call from a family asking my advice on what they can do for their puppy to help it through its teething stage. I’ll hear, "my puppy chews up every one of its toys", or "my puppy chews any socks or underwear (yes, underwear) they can get their tiny paws on!" Well…there’s no getting around it, puppies teethe and puppies chew. My advice is as follows. First and most important you should be using your crate anytime you leave that puppy alone so there’s not a “window of opportunity” in which this destructive behavior can take place. So, ALWAYS put him/her in the crate when you’re gone. Drop a yummy treat into the crate each time too, so that puppy starts to look forward to going into its crate. Second, purchase from a butcher, (if you can find a local butcher), some RAW, MEATY, MARROW BONES, these have to be RAW, not cooked and not flavored. These are cow leg bones, and the middle of the bone is filled with delicious, yummy cartilage that is extremely healthy for your puppy. Just the motion of chewing on a frozen bone to get at that cartilage is great for your pup because it involves grasping the bone with its two front paws, holding it for a long period of time (great exercise), and patiently chewing, chewing, chewing on the frozen bone to try and get at the delicious cartilage inside the bone. Make sure your butcher cuts the bones into about 1 ½” to 2” pieces so your dog can eventually get at all that marrow inside the bones, you don’t want the bones to be any bigger than this. When we buy bones from the butcher I purchase about $50.00 worth of bones and place the whole box in our freezer. Then each dog gets a bone right out of the freezer, maybe two times a week. They can be messy as they thaw out, so some people choose to have their dogs only eat these inside their crates, or outside. This is also a great treat to give your dog after you’ve placed him in his crate and you're walking out the door, he’ll be busy for hours! One last trick I do sometimes is after your dog has cleaned off all the marrow from the inside of the bone, I’ll boil the bone (to disinfect it), and then I’ll fill the hole in the middle of the bone with peanut butter, place the bones in the freezer and freeze, essentially recycleing the bones, now using a totally new treat inside. The dogs just love them!