I am the Alpha! Not you!

[Lessica Jake]

Ugh.
So we thought that it'd be nice not to have to tie Bailey at night. Big mistake. Giver her an inch, she'll try to take a hundred miles. That is the only thing we've done differently in the last like, 3 months. And now, she's chewing everything in sight. I put her outside, she chewed the foil tape I left out there for 5 minutes. Foil tape off the roll, not even foil with anything good on it. Then, after being told she was bad for that, I left her where she was for a bit. Unfortunately, I left my nice, insulated, work gloves out in her reach. I thought I'd remembered to put them inside. Well, she ate the thumb off one of them, now I have no gloves. Then, after being tied at night again, I put her out in the morning to do her business and not 5 minutes later I hear a strange noise. So I open the door and she's got the bottle from our plumbing anti-freeze in her mouth. Now, it's for plumbing and it's non-toxic, plus it was empty, so I'm not concerned about that. For now, when she's outside she gets to have her muzzle on, because even if I'm out there with her on a leash, she manages to snap things up before I can catch her.

I haven't had any problems with her chewing anything but her toys in over a year. I know that this is going back to her trying to put herself back in the alpha role, but I'm kind of at a loss at this point. She's tied every moment we're not with her again, and for the time being she's muzzled outside. We eat first, come inside first, everything I can think of we do before she's allowed.

Any suggestions??

[AlphaMale]

I think you have to be very decisive and firm before it gets worse.

[Rip's Girl]

This sounds not only like her trying to become 'alpha' but it sounds a bit like boredom. She's bored outside and it's fun to get into stuff. (I know 100% what you're dealing with, my dogs get into everything if we leave them in the yard)

Maybe before you put her outside, try having her run alongside your bicycle for a while or play a looooong game of fetch..
After you've worn her out physically, drill her in obedience or teach her a new trick for about half an hour. If she isn't well-versed in obedience, this is a good time to start. If she is, just make her work until she's mentally exhausted. Usually that combination will make for a very, very sleepy dog.

The key here is to tire her out before you leave her outside. As a precaution, give her a toy or two outside. A tired dog is not a dog that's going to get into mischief or want to chew things up, IMO.

[Lessica Jake]

Oh, no. The more we have her out and active and with us and whatever, the worse she's getting. The periods she's out and getting into trouble are just her go to the bathroom times. Plus, I don't have a yard, everything we do has to be within 30 feet of a person because that's the longest lead I've got. However, I made her drag it through the snow for an hour the other day, and she was still naughty.

[Dax]

At Canadian Tire they had portable kennels (around $240) that is a 6 x 6 enclosure. Setting one of those up won't take a lot of space plus gives you a "safe" environment to put her. You can set it up in the house or outside.

I would set some traps for her... Cayanne pepper on old sock left out, etc. The idea is to get her to go for something she knows isnt' hers then Wamo - bad stuff happens. What the "bad" stuff is I'll leave up to you as only you know what really turns her off.

Take away toys that are similar to things you own and wish to have tooth mark free. Buy knuckle bones, or other "dog" toys not made out of fabric for her. I like bones because dogs need no encouragement to choose them. I buy the big marrow bones and give raw. Even a 9 month old rotti will choose chewing on an old meatless bone over my leather shoes- so I think so will your spaniel.

Let us know if any of these ideas might help.

[Rip's Girl]

Dax has some good suggestions. Raw marrow bones, knuckle bones and the like are usually more appealing than an empty antifreeze jug to most dogs.