I have a 9 month old border collier who occassionallyy decides to spend the day (when left alone) to dig and chew at the wooden floor boards in the dining room where he is left.
I know that he is still a 'pup' and going through his 'chewing phase' however he is seeming to be growing out of the phase - as in hes not chewing EVERYTHING any more. he has 4 walks a day and is left with toys ie: kongs, nylabones, chewy toys, balls, a peice of hard wood (that was given to him - to deter him chewing door frames & skirting boards - which HAS worked he is happy with his peice of wood ALSO NEED TO ADD ITS HARD WOOD AND DOESNT SPLINTER!)
He only chews when he is left during the day so we cannot catch him doing it - we also have a 16 year old border collie of which he is a companion for her so we also dont want to crate him, as it would defeat the obejct.
In terms of keeping him in another room - all of the floor in the house is floor boards so that is also not an option.

Any ideas of what we could put on the floors which would deter him from ripping them up but that he will still lie on on??

P.S bitter apple spray & shop brought spray make absolutely NO difference! any ideas welcomed!
Thanks

I think crate training if only for a short period of time is the best way to break his bad habit. Apart from carpeting the whole house it's your only real option, if there's a rug down he'll only pull it up to get to the wood. And you know what BC's are like, they only need to learn something once and they'll remember it.

I would also take the hardwood off him, I know it's his piece of wood but it's kind of like giving a dog an old shoe to chew then expecting them to know the difference between old and new shoes so they only chew certain ones.

I wouldn't want to diagnose but if he is generally chewing less and being left with lots of stimulation then perhaps his destructiveness is down to separation anxiety rather than boredom? I know you mentioned he is walked regularly, how long is he left alone?

I have a year old Border Collie and she also has the taste for wooden skirting boards. I'm not quite sure how to stop it either. She even licks off the spray that is meant to deter her from chewing it! She has a lot of physical and mental exercise, left with numerous amount of chew toys, she will only be left for a few hours at most as I work part time in a cattery, but nothing tastes as good as that bloomin' skirting board!!

Hi Roxypup since i posted that message our 16 year old has passed away and we have re-homed an 18 month BC bitch. We couldnt create train Jack our pup as he was a companion for our 16yr old and she was a friend for him so that was never really an option. After trying every bitter spray on the market and all online remedies we found two things that worked! Tabasco sauce works really really well but the taste doesnt last long and if you have white skirting boards like us (or semi white semi chewed!) then it turns the paintwork orangey/pinky the other item that worked wondered is cheap liquid hand soap, this has probably worked the best although Jack is nearly a year old now so could be coincidental with his age but soap doesnt stain the woodwork or leave any mess as it drys clear and the taste seems to last longer ( i would say re apply every couple of days). we were actually able to transfer all the furniture into our dining room last weekend instead of it being a dog play room! I would highly recommend trying the soap as pet shop bitter sprays did not do anything!
Good luck.

We used oil of cloves, just a few drops in some water then using a pastry brush put it on walls, skirting boards, curtains,tables, chairs even the kennel etc anything the boys decided they needed too chew for us This has worked brilliant and so far fingers x'd i have only had too redo it a couple of times.