ShihTzu Puppy

Question
We have a 18 month, 6lb, very sweet female Shih Tzu. She has an extremely nasty habit of chewing socks & underwear (her staples - LOL), plus a nose that can sniff out any type of food, anywhere and can devour ice cream sticks, foil candy wrappers, etc in a matter of seconds. (Note: the socks and underwear, clean ones are not safe either, she does not only go after dirty ones.

This puppy can eat 1/2 a sock/underwear in one sitting and not only is it frustrating, for she will climb on/through things to get to them, but she literally is digesting these objects.

How do I stop her and is it harmful to her digestive tract?

Answer
You need to combine carefully watching her with crating her when you can't.  It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first. What the puppy wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the household, and any other pets. In our modern society, even if we are home, other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have. The only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around. The dog may be happier in its den than loose in the house. It relaxes, it feels safe in its den. It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving its self. Dogs that have been crated all along do very well. Many of them will rest in their crates even when the door is open. I think the plastic ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling. Metal ones can be put in a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew. Select a crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in.

Leave it some toys. Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter. Don't leave anything in the crate the dog might chew up. It will do fine without even any bedding. You will come home to a safe dog and a house you can enjoy.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work. Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a "safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving itself.

Keeping things picked up too will help.  Dirty clothes need to go in a hamper with a lid.  Leaving bedroom doors closed helps too.  Trash needs to go in a container with a lid or behind a door.  

All those foreign objects are dangerous, leading to an obstructed digestive tract or choking.  Wooden sticks can splinter and injure.