A Man Says His In-Laws’ Puppy Chewed Through Their Deck, Shoes, and Phones, So He Finally Walked to the Car and Refused to Watch It Destroy Anything Else
A person shared his story about visiting his wife’s parents, where a nine- to ten-month-old mixed-breed dog named Chewy had become the unofficial destroyer of the household. The name was originally meant as a reference to Chewbacca from Star Wars, but the puppy had somehow turned it into an accidental prophecy. Chewy apparently had one major hobby, and nearly everything within reach was considered fair game.
The dog didn’t seem particularly selective about what it put in its mouth. Deck chairs, wooden armrests, plastic joints, shoes, phones, remotes, and even the actual deck had all become chew toys. Instead of simply gnawing on the edges, Chewy would attack the surface of the deck at an almost perfect right angle, stripping away paint in large circles. The damage was becoming difficult to ignore.
The Deck Was Losing the Battle
The deck chairs had once been relatively nice pieces of outdoor furniture with wooden armrests, but Chewy had changed that quickly. The wooden sections were reportedly destroyed, while the plastic had been chewed badly enough that some joints were approaching failure. The deck itself had multiple six- to nine-inch areas where the paint had been completely removed.
What bothered the visitor most wasn’t simply that the puppy was chewing things. It was that nobody appeared particularly interested in stopping it. His in-laws had apparently reached the point where they admitted they had “given up,” leaving him watching a young dog steadily dismantle whatever happened to be nearby.
His Mother-in-Law Tried, Sort Of
At one point, Chewy was chewing the deck directly underneath his mother-in-law while she sat outside. Rather than properly removing the dog or redirecting it toward something appropriate, she put her foot over the spot where the puppy was chewing. Chewy apparently interpreted the gesture as an invitation to start a new game.
The puppy continued for more than twenty minutes and even began biting his mother-in-law’s foot. She reportedly kept smiling and allowing the situation to continue, despite being able to see that the behavior was making her son-in-law uncomfortable. To him, the scene was less like training a dog and more like watching someone negotiate with a tiny demolition crew.
Then Chewy Found the Shoes
The situation became much more personal when the dog discovered one of the visitor’s shoes. Chewy had apparently been left alone inside for only about thirty seconds, yet somehow managed to locate the shoe and immediately began gnawing on it. The visitors followed the puppy into the house and caught it in the act.
That incident made it harder for him to simply tell himself that the damage was someone else’s problem. Shoes could be replaced, but the same behavior meant phones, bags, furniture, and other belongings could become targets at any moment. The dog seemed to operate under one simple rule: if it could reach it, it could chew it.
Phones Weren’t Safe Either
His wife experienced the same problem when she placed her phone on a table. Someone immediately warned her to put it back into her pocket because Chewy was trying to get to it. The warning wasn’t based on imagination, either, because the family had reportedly already found the puppy chewing on a phone outside a few days earlier.
At that point, the visitor felt as though everyone had to spend every minute guarding their possessions. Even relaxing on the deck required keeping track of where every phone, shoe, remote, and piece of furniture was located. Instead of visiting family, it began to feel like supervising a toddler with teeth.
Food Created Another Problem
Chewy’s behavior wasn’t limited to chewing household objects. The dog would also lunge toward plates of food placed on the counters, apparently having little understanding that human food wasn’t automatically available to it. That added another layer of chaos to an already frustrating situation.
For the visitor, the combination was what made the dog especially difficult to tolerate. Chewy wasn’t simply chewing an occasional shoe or getting overly excited around dinner. The puppy appeared to have very few boundaries, and the adults responsible for it weren’t establishing many either.
“We’ve Given Up” Changed Everything
The most troubling phrase in the entire situation may have been the family’s admission that they had “given up.” A puppy around nine or ten months old is still young, but it is also at an important stage for learning boundaries and acceptable behavior. The visitor couldn’t understand how the family could watch the destruction continue without taking stronger action.
He had already suggested getting a professional dog trainer several times. His in-laws brushed off the suggestion, while his wife believed they were at least trying to train Chewy. From his perspective, however, whatever they were doing wasn’t producing any visible results.
The Moment He Finally Left
Eventually, Chewy went after his wife’s iPhone and then returned to chewing the deck. That was the moment the visitor reached his limit. Rather than continue sitting there while the puppy destroyed another section of the property, he stood up and headed for the car.
He explained his decision aloud, saying that he couldn’t stand sitting there and watching the dog eat the deck anymore and that he would wait in the car until his wife was ready to leave. He said it at a normal volume and in front of his mother-in-law, which immediately created a second problem that had nothing to do with the dog.
His Wife Was Embarrassed
His wife wasn’t pleased with the way he handled the departure. She felt embarrassed that he had made his feelings clear in front of her mother instead of keeping the discussion private. From her perspective, he could have simply ignored the behavior and stayed for the visit.
He saw the situation differently. Ignoring Chewy meant sitting there while the puppy destroyed property, chased expensive belongings, lunged for food, and even chewed at a person’s foot. His anxiety about the situation wasn’t something he could simply switch off because everyone else had decided to tolerate it.
A Response From a Person Called It a Puppy Problem
A response from a person pointed out that Chewy was still a puppy and that this was precisely the age when owners should be teaching a dog what it can and can’t chew. The person warned that allowing the behavior to continue could make the dog increasingly difficult to manage as it grew older. The food-related behavior was also highlighted as something that shouldn’t simply be ignored.
Another response from a person agreed, predicting that Chewy could eventually become the kind of dog that dragged its owners around because they had established virtually no control. According to that response, the family’s current training seemed to consist mostly of weakly telling the puppy “no” and hoping it would listen. The growing dog, meanwhile, appeared to have developed its own training philosophy.
Other People Focused on His Exit
Not everyone thought his decision to leave was handled well. One response from a person said that he wasn’t wrong for disliking the dog’s behavior but believed he should have pulled his wife aside and discussed the situation privately. Another person argued that sitting in the car was immature and suggested that he simply stop visiting the house if the dog caused him that much distress.
Several people offered a simpler solution. His wife could visit her parents without him, while her parents could visit the couple’s home without bringing Chewy. That would allow everyone to spend time together without forcing one person to sit through an environment he found genuinely stressful.
The Trainer Became the Real Argument
The visitor still wanted to speak with his father-in-law, especially because they reportedly had a good relationship. He hoped a direct conversation might finally convince the family to bring in a professional trainer before Chewy became even harder to handle. His wife strongly disagreed and became angry when he suggested discussing the effect the dog’s behavior was having on him.
That disagreement appeared to bother him almost as much as the puppy itself. He felt that his concerns were being dismissed as oversensitivity rather than treated as a legitimate boundary. His wife, meanwhile, seemed to believe that accepting the dog meant accepting its behavior, at least for the time being.
The Responses Split Down the Middle
Some responses from people firmly supported the visitor’s decision to leave. They argued that nobody should be expected to sit in an environment where a poorly controlled dog is constantly destroying property, especially when the owners aren’t taking meaningful steps to correct the behavior. One person even suggested inviting the in-laws over for Christmas without the dog.
Other responses took a more restrained position. They agreed that Chewy needed training but argued that the in-laws’ pet was ultimately their responsibility, not his. He couldn’t force them to train their dog, and attempting to take control of the situation could create even more tension within the family.
Someone Suggested a Surprisingly Simple Fix
One response from a person suggested giving the family appropriate chew toys and using a pet-safe deterrent spray such as Bitter Apple on objects Chewy was targeting. The person explained that they had a puppy with similar habits and had used the spray on furniture, shoes, bags, and baseboards. They considered the visitor’s reaction excessive because there were practical ways to manage the chewing.
But that suggestion also exposed the central problem. A solution only works if the owners are willing to consistently use it, redirect the dog, supervise it, and reinforce the behavior they actually want. Buying a bottle of spray wouldn’t solve much if everyone simply watched Chewy return to the deck five minutes later.
Christmas Was Approaching
The visitor wasn’t looking for a permanent family feud. In fact, he specifically wanted to resolve the situation before the holiday season because he wanted to spend Christmas with his in-laws without feeling like he needed to monitor every object in the room. The family lived only about ten miles away, so avoiding them completely didn’t feel realistic.
That made the situation more complicated than simply refusing to visit. These weren’t strangers whose house he could permanently avoid. They were his wife’s parents, people he normally saw regularly, and one of them was someone he described as having a great relationship with him.
The Twist Wasn’t Really the Dog
The deeper problem slowly became clear: Chewy wasn’t the only thing creating the conflict. The puppy had become the visible symbol of a disagreement about boundaries, responsibility, and whether one person’s discomfort should be accommodated by the family. The visitor wanted the dog trained, while his wife wanted him to tolerate the situation without making it into a larger family issue.
There was also an important distinction between controlling Chewy and controlling his own participation. He couldn’t make his in-laws hire a trainer, and he couldn’t guarantee that the puppy would suddenly stop chewing. What he could decide was whether he stayed in the house, whether he protected his belongings, and whether he discussed the issue calmly with his wife.
The Real Choice Was His Own Boundary
By the end of the story, the strongest responses weren’t necessarily telling him to punish Chewy or confront his in-laws. They were telling him that he could establish a boundary without trying to run someone else’s household. If the dog remained untrained, he could stay home, visit his in-laws at his own house, or let his wife visit them alone.
That approach would also remove the need for dramatic exits in front of his mother-in-law. Instead of waiting until the next phone attack or deck demolition pushed him over the edge, he could explain beforehand that he wasn’t comfortable visiting while Chewy was loose and unsupervised. The family could then decide what they were willing to change.
Chewy May Have Accidentally Exposed the Bigger Problem
The ironic part of the story was that the puppy’s name was never intended to describe its personality. Chewy had supposedly been named after Chewbacca, with the fact that the dog literally chewed everything becoming an unintended joke afterward. Yet the longer the story continued, the more perfectly the name seemed to fit.
The real test, however, wasn’t whether Chewy could be stopped from chewing one particular chair or deck board. It was whether the adults around him were willing to recognize that a young, powerful dog needed consistent boundaries before the behavior became much harder to manage. Until that happened, every visit risked turning into the same strange family ritual: the humans trying to relax while Chewy searched the room for his next victim.
