Tonks

I don't know what to do to help Tonks. She's 8 months old now and at some point I thought that the chewing and scratching of our house had got better, but we are going downhill again.

She only does it when not with us, so it can happen over night or while we are out.
She goes in to the utility room at night where she has a bed that is also a 'safe place' for her, ie, when there we don't disturb her. She used to chew the lino, but that seems to have got better. I sprayed everything with anti-bite stuff and it seemed to help. But she scratches at the walls - she's removed loads of plaster in there now. Not every night, but often I find piles of white dust on the floor

In the day time I let her have the run of our large kitchen, passage and utility room. I used to allow the living room but she kept finding things like DVDs to chew and as they are kept in there, I just decided to shut the door in the end. I think she still has enough space. Originally we only let her stay in the utility room, but she was taking it apart so much I had to change things. We tried using a crate but she was petrified of it. We tried for over 2 weeks to coax her in to it, but she would only even go near it once or twice. So that was when I went the opposite route and tried giving her more space to see if it would help, and it did, but only for a few weeks Now I find that when we are out and she is free downstairs, she is chewing what ever she can find.

I'm now dreading coming home each day. She has eaten loads of post - I'm getting a letter box cage thing, but worry that her not having post to shred will mean she destroys our house all the more. Yesterday afternoon we were out for 2 and a half hours and later I noticed that she had chewed a load of the skirting board on the stairs.

It's driving Liam mad, he's not nearly as doggy sympathetic as me but is trying.
Of course every time he gets angry I take it as a personal insult as Tonks is my dog and my responsibility. She can't help how she is but I need to help her - I just don't know how! I'm in almost all of the weekend, most of monday. From tuesday to friday I'm out from 8:30-16:15 but I have a neighbour to come in and see Tonks these days. But this doesn't seem to matter if she starts after being left for just over 2 hours.

So what can I do? I leave her toys, chew toys, cuddly toys, a bottle with holes in and kibble inside for her to roll out. A hollow 'bone' toy that I fill with food for her to work at getting out. As she seemed to like shredding so much I tried putting treats in folded down carboard tubes, she loves this but it doesn't help her to stop eating the house.
I'm taking her for a half hour walk in the morning, giving her a real chance to work off some energy and Darling Liam takes her out in the evenings for about 15 minutes for an on-lead walk even though he doesn't want to. This is about right I think - I've often read that it should be 5 minutes for every month of age per day until they are 13 months old. But now I'm thinking of upping it.
I try to do some clicker training with her each evening, but am not always able to, so we play fetch for a bit instead. What else can I do?! She's still messing and weeing indoors sometimes, but that's something I can deal with. If she keeps chewing and clawing our home apart then I'm worried that it will cause serious rifts with Liam.

I like the idea of clanging a baking tray if I catch her chewing or scratching - I'm sure it will scare the crap out of her, but I'm also certain it will WORK. I just need to figure out how to set her up so that she thinks we are all out.

Can I confess to you please? I know that here I (hopefully!) wont get judged.
I'm scared - I think I've taken on too much! I so so so so don't want to lose Tonks as I had to with Clifford, but then I know now that getting Clifford was a PND induced mistake of a decision. He was lovely but I couldn't do it.
Before we got Tonks I had huuuge broody feelings, and huuuuge doggie urges too. I didn't have to get a puppy, but prefered it because of the children. I knew I was fine with having a DOG and not just a 'cute puppy' IYKWIM?
But now I'm so worried that I'm not going to be able to cater for what she needs - I never expected things to end up so hard. It's not Tonks at all, it's our situation changes. I wanted to start TTC in a few months but now I'm worried that we wont be able to. I'm supposed to be doing an English Lit degree, but I'm worried I will have to give it up.

I just don't have enough time at home anymore, I can't seem to get organised even when I am in, but I'm trying, I really am!
I can take waiting for Tonks to be mature and chewing less (I know most dogs mature at 2, but Labs are more likely to be 3) but I wonder how much destruction she can do in those 2.5 years!