He has toys that are almost a year old, and yet he is compelled to destroy the brand new one

mine does the same thing...

Mine too! It must be very satisfying to destroy a chew toy.

I think it may be a German Shepherd thing.

We give our shepherds kong balls and other things impossible to destroy, and occasionally the destroyable toy. They love the destroyable toy, LOL.

We have to keep stuffed animals away from them. And expensive leather shoes, LOL. And for a while there, the remote controls, but they've finally grown out of that, thank goodness.

every toy has a shelf life. like the squeeker has a ticker that only they can hear. i have resurrected some by re-stuffing the guts and sewing them up with a needle and dental floss--even replacing the squeeker sometimes.