“Chewing, for a dog, is like a human opening a door and looking into a room,” said Colin Tennant, the chairman of the U.K. Canine and Feline Behaviour Association. “People are nosy, and so are the dogs. But they investigate with their mouths, because they don’t have hands.”
Source: Live Science, December 5, 2017.
Dogs frequently chew things because they like the taste or the odor,” Tennant said. “In a home, the odors that the dogs find the most attractive are the human odors. Moreover, the shoe texture is particularly inviting for the dogs. It speaks to their wild animal instincts.”