What furniture legs are telling you
A puppy who walks past a basket of toys to chew a chair leg is giving you precise product feedback. Wood and cable casing resist the teeth with a firm, slightly yielding bite, they stay still instead of skittering away, and they are permanently positioned at mouth height in the rooms where he spends his day. Most puppy toys are soft, light, and designed for carrying rather than sustained chewing, so the comparison is not close from his side of the transaction.
Teething adds urgency to the preference, because sore gums seek pressure, and a solid leg delivers counter-pressure that a plush toy cannot. The answer is therefore not more toys of the same kind; it is a better-matched legal chew, plus removing access to the illegal ones while the new habit forms.
Match the texture, then place it where the problem is
Offer chews with genuine firmness and staying power: a solid rubber chew he can gnaw rather than shred, a dog-safe wooden-style chew stick, or a long-lasting edible chew appropriate for his age, always supervised. Introduce the new chew when he is already in a chewing mood, wiggle it at the base of the targeted chair leg, let him take it, and praise and occasionally trade a small treat for it so the chew predicts good things rather than confiscation.
Placement beats quantity. Put an approved chew at each hotspot, beside the dining chairs, by the desk cables, near the sofa leg, because a puppy mid-urge will take the legal option within reach and will rarely cross a room to fetch one from a toy box. Rotate two or three types every couple of days so novelty keeps them interesting, and put a tired chew away rather than leaving every option out until all of them are equally stale.
Make legs and cables genuinely unavailable
Redirection fails if the original target stays freely available, because self-rewarding behaviour practised fifty times will outrun a handful of training moments. Route cables through rigid covers, behind furniture, or up off the floor entirely, and treat any dangling charger lead as an emergency to fix today, since cables add an electrical risk that chair legs do not. Block favourite furniture with a pen, a gate, or rearranged pieces while the habit is forming, and consider a bitter-tasting deterrent spray on legs as a backup layer, reapplied often, while understanding it supports management rather than replacing it.
Supervise with intent: when you cannot watch him, he rests in a pen or crate with his approved chew, which is management, not punishment. When you catch him mid-chew on a leg, interrupt calmly, offer the legal chew immediately, and reward the swap. Shouting after the fact teaches nothing about the leg; it only teaches him to chew it when you are out of the room.
Build the swap into a tracked household routine
Expect the preference to fade over weeks, not days, and expect relapses during peak teething and adolescent boredom, when chew provision needs to go up again rather than discipline. Provide a scheduled chew session after walks and meals, the times chewing urges peak, so the behaviour has a planned outlet instead of an opportunistic one.
Note which chews actually hold him, which hotspots remain tempting, and when chewing spikes, and share those notes so every person in the house makes the same swap offer and blocks the same access points. Logging chew rotations, hotspot management, and successful swaps on KinsLe with Care Teams, each duty marked with its timestamp, turns a frustrating habit into a visible, shrinking pattern the whole household is beating together.