Board and train for destructive chewing and counter surfing

The AKC calls counter surfing self-rewarding: once a dog finds food on a counter, even a forgotten crust is enough to keep it checking. Chewing has more causes. The ASPCA lists teething, puppies exploring, boredom, distress when left alone, hunger in dogs on restricted diets, and frustration, such as a dog that cannot reach a squirrel behind a fence. Each cause has a different fix, so the first job is working out which one you are dealing with.

Age matters here. The AKC's teething timeline has baby teeth shedding from about 12 to 16 weeks and all puppy teeth gone by about six months, leaving roughly 42 adult teeth, and the ASPCA says the intensified chewing phase usually ends by six months. A dog of eight months or a year that still destroys things is rarely chewing for sore gums. It is more often bored, under-exercised or rehearsing a habit that teething started.

During the stay the enrichment add-ons double as a test: a frozen Kong for $6, a lick mat for $5, a puzzle game for $7 and the sniff room for $7. Some dogs are chewers, some lickers, some shredders and some sniffers, and the daily updates will show which item held your dog's attention longest and how calm it was afterward. That observation becomes a prescription: the right object, offered at the time of day the damage usually happens.

The ASPCA's advice fills in the rest: rotate toys every couple of days so they stay interesting, supervise edible chews and keep the dog apart from other dogs while it has one, and never offer cooked bones, which can splinter. Timing matters as much as the object. A frozen Kong handed over just before you start cooking does more for counter surfing than one given after the bread has gone.

If the damage happens only when the dog is alone, starts soon after you leave and gathers at doors and windows, the cause may be separation distress, and our separation anxiety page explains why a stay rarely fixes it. If it is boredom in an adolescent, more structure in the week does more than any single program: daycare at $42 a day, or Dogtown Academy at $89 full and $69 half, with a training session every day.

For continued coaching, private sessions start from $94, and Calm & Connected suits adolescents whose impulse control is the real gap. Before St. Peter's Fiesta in late June, when Gloucester houses fill with guests and platters, run the mat and the leave it daily. If your dog swallows something worrying, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center; Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn is open 24 hours. For the Foundation and Advanced stays side by side, see our board and train page.