dog keeps chewing wood toys

[Casual Storm]

Hi- My dog keeps chewing up my son's wooden toys. Does anyone know of anything I can put on the toys to deter the dog from chewing, but that is still safe (non-toxic) for my son (11 mo) if he happens to mouth them too? I know there is a product called Bitter Apple for dogs, but I don't know how safe it would be for babies. Or is this just a bad idea all together?
Thanks,
Karin

[Elphaba]

i just kept the wooden toys out of the dog's reach, and if she happened to find one out, i'd tell her "no chew" or something, and give her one of her own toys.
that, and i learned to live with a few tooth marks in some toys!

is the dog a puppy or an adult? is he/she getting enough attention and exercise? does he/she have appropriate chew toys? you might try getting a Kong and smearing it with peanut butter or meat paste to distract him/her from your son's toys.

[Clarity]

bad idea...if it tastes bad to the dog it will taste bad to the babe. And mouthing is important. I give extra chewies to the dog, and we lose some. Dog likes stuffed toys and wool covers too.

[CerridwenLorelei]

are you living in my house???

our pup keeps doing the same thing ( except he FINDS the hiding areas for the kids wood toys!)
he just finished off a hearthsong whistle GRR
and he has LOTS of chew toys and pup toys
he sneaks when we are in bed in the early am I think ...

and as for bitters and bitter sprays -they don't work here ! they get US not the dogs!

[DancerMom]

I have this problem, plus, my dogs like to hide things, so I don't always realize they're not put away. Someone recommended spraying lemon juice on them. I haven't done it yet, but my dd likes lemons, so this might work for us. Also, I think the bitter apple is fine for babies, although I haven't looked at the label myself, so I'm going by what someone else told me.

If you find a magic cure, though, PLEASE POST IT!!!

[levar]

Hmm? Would allow edit but not delete? I added twice. Sorry.

[levar]

How old is the dog? If young enough, you probably can train/retrain. If not, try and make the "line" between dog and child toys very specific. Also just as when "kid proofing" your home to keep it safe you need to do the same for the dog. It is no fun for anyone to be yelling at kids all the time when they are iresistably drawn to some "no-no" so you remove the no-no until they learn in a less stressful environment. Dogs are the same. Constant reprimand gets you both nowhere.

As a suggestion, make a permanent change in your allowable toys for BOTH dogs and kids. For example, we have a variety of dog toys like those rubber kongs, rubber bones, and any form of ball or frisbee. Taylor does NOT get anything resembling these. Or if he does they must SHARE [and when the dog eats it, not complain]. Similarly the dog doesnt EVER get ANY stuffed animal like toys OR wooden things OR squeaker toys etc. We have dog toys outside only and Taylor's few outside toys in a bucket that get cleaned up when we or through [or the dog eats them, and no complaining].

Good Luck! And like anything, try to see this as a long term life long change for the better and things will go well.