They do love to chew our most personal items. In addition to contact lenses, add glasses, retainers and hearing aids. Don't leave any of these items out on countertops or bathroom vanities or night stands.
Rosalind

We have a similar situation with Izzy. He loves paper & things that have our scent on them. Our job is to keep the treasures out of his reach. Our shoes are in the closet with the door closed. Clean clothes are put away and the hamper lid is always closed (they love things that have our strong scent on them)and the paper is out of his reach. When we are gone, he is in an ex-pen that is the size of our living room. The ex-pen protects our P.C./t.v/dvd's & furniture . He has access to our yard. I always throw in a kong filled with treats for him to work on.
We have gone through basic obedience class and have started the next level. I feel that the more you work with your dog, the stronger the bond is between you and the dog gains confidence.
Hope this helps. Closed doors, trash cans with lids and baby gates work wonders too !

You probably aren't going to like my suggestion: crate Annie when you aren't around - this is for her safety as well as the well-being of your shoes and hats :-) If not a crate than an expen - some place where she can't do anything naughty or get into anything (today your contacts tomorrow your prescriptions)...

The other thing is upping the exercise she's getting - she might need more activity now that you aren't home stimulating them as much - you can't rely on Baxter and dog to dog play to get all of the juice out (so to speak)...you might also take a bit of time every night to do some training - nothing big - just some tricks maybe - get that Lab brain of her working too.

BTW: Teller escaped his crate two weeks ago and shreded phonebooks. Actually shred implies that there were pieces big enough to pick up :-)

Erica