Coming home to find your couch cushions in pieces of the bottom of your door a mess is no laughing matter, but do we really understand the true reason why our dogs chew?
As pup, just like a growing child, dogs will chew to relieve the pain of their new teeth coming through. For this reason a variety or chew toys for puppies should be available to your dog through their growing stages. It is important to know the difference between a pup teething and destructive behavior as you don’t want to be correcting your dog for simply doing something that’s natural.
Chewing, though, can become a problem as your dog becomes an adult, this stems from the fact that as a pup, they used their mouth to explore the world around them. If this problem is not corrected as soon as it begins it can lead to a wide scale destruction of your house and belongings and ruin the relationship between you and your pooch. If chewing is correctly addressed from a young age this can be avoided.
Firstly, you want to rule out that there are no medical issues that are causing your dog to be misconstrued or chew inappropriately. Things such as nutritional deficiency caused by poor diet or parasites in the intestines can be some on these medical issues. A check up with your vet is the easiest way to rule this out.
Your next step is to make your house puppy safe! Pups are very inquisitive as they are discovering the world around them, all house hold chemicals and dangerous plants should be kept well out of reach. Common house hold objects such as electrical cords and children’s toys should be kept securely away from your pup’s reach. Its best confine your dog to certain rooms in your house that are ‘puppy safe’, crate training is also an option for when you cannot supervise your dog.
Make sure there are plenty of correct chew options available for your pup, teaching your pup that they cannot chew anything at all is not healthy for their development. A wide variety of appropriate chew toys are available at pet shops and pet supplies and with the correct stimulation and training it is very easy to teach your pup the right and wrong items to chew. One of the best ways to avoid your dog chewing the wrong items is to make it clear for them to know right from wrong, giving your dog an old shoe to chew can be confusing, although we know the old from new shoe this isn’t obvious to our pets. Try seeing this situation from your dog’s point of view, if they are given an old shoe to chew and come across and beautiful display of fresh new shoes at the front door, how are they to know they aren’t allowed to chew on those too? Make a clear display to your dog of which toys are theirs to chew and that everything else is out of bounds. The best way to achieve this to praise your dog when they are chewing their own toys, when found chewing your belongings take the objects away immediately and let them know they have done the wrong thing. At no point should you physically discipline your dog! Sometimes it can be difficult to teach your dog the right from wrong things to chew, bitter deterrent sprays are great to thing to spray on the ‘wrong’ chew objects.
One of the easiest ways to avoid bored chewing is to entertain your dog to avoid boredom! Engage activity with your dog, keep them mentally and physically stimulated. This will not only help avoid destructive behavior but will help to build a positive and strong bond between you and your pet.
For more behaviour help visit;
