photo credit: ben pollard

Continued…

5. Spending quality time supervising your dog is a must. Your dog will be bored and unhappy if you if kept penned up in a crate, run, or the yard. You need to interact with your dog. They cannot learn from you if you are not present or if they are not released to spend time outside of their dog-proofed zone. By interacting with your dog you are giving them the opportunity to explore the boundaries, this is how they will learn what’s appropriate and what’s not.

6. When you catch your dog participating in destructive chewing, make sure you interrupt with a loud noise. You could clap your hands, make an “Ah-ah-aaaah!” noise or my personal favorite shout oi! As soon as you have made the noise pass your dog a dog-appropriate alternative, it is best to make it a tasty alternative like a  rawhide bone or other chew toy. Once the dog has taken the item from you and starts to chew it give them lots of praise and attention.  There is no better way to train your dog than through positive dog training. the dog will come to understand that chewing a toy equals praise from you, but everything else means a telling off.

I hope that this little series has been informative and helps you break the destructive chewing cycle.

photo credit: Matt McGee

Continued…

3. You need to clearly set the boundaries between what is acceptable and what is not. Your dog cannot tell the difference between a new pair of shoes and an old pair of shoes. Blurring the lines by offering your dog old clothes, shoes or other household items to play with is setting them up for a fall. Don’t do it!

4. Your dog needs to chew, so you need to provide them with something to chew on. If you don’t they will chew on whatever is available. To keep them interested in their chews as opposed to your stuff you need to keep them interested by providing variety. Make sure that there is always a choice of 2 or 3 things for your dog to chew on and make sure that you rotate these out regularly so that boredom doesn’t set in.

Remember also that puppy chewing and adolescent chewing will be even more pronounced.

To be continued…

photo credit: RyanCarr

Always remember that when you first bring your dog home, they are still learning the ropes. It will take time for before they become completely reliable. Once they become more reliable there may still be issues if they are left by themselves for too long or feel neglected, they may choose to occupy themselves with destructive chewing out of pure boredom.

Give your dog plenty of time to learn the rules. Spend lots of quality time with them to help them learn faster. Keep everything you can out of reach until they have the hang of the rules, this will save a lot of stress in the long run.

Your dog can learn not to chew your possessions – you just have to put in a little effort initially, that’s all.

1. You have to take control of the situation. Manage your possessions. Firstly you really need to dog-proof your home. It doesn’t matter how well behaved your dog is, there’s still no reason to test their self-control. Dogs explore with their mouths and noses so it is natural for them to chew.

Make everything that you don’t want to end up in your dog’s mouth. Make sure everything really is out of reach taking into account their acrobatic abilities when faced with a challenge.

2. It is much easier to train your dog from the outset before they learn about the joys of illegal chewing. The more times that they can actually get to a forbidden item such as a chair, a pillow, a running shoe the more enthused they will be to try it again. This means you need to keep them in a dog-proofed area until you’re confident that they understand the house rules.

To be continued…

photo credit: Don Nunn

Dogs will chew just about anything but some really common targets that should always be kept out of harms way are:

• books
• eye glasses, sunglasses, ski masks, snorkeling gear
• clothes
• shoes
• garbage, yes they will turn the gargage bin over to get at it.
• appliances like cameras, cell phones, and remote controls.

Their natural scavenging will make them target food wherever it is left hanging around so all food needs to be put securely away: don’t leave snacks on tables or counter tops when you leave the room because they will attempt to get at them. Their acrobatic abilities would surprise you when it comes to food at stake, put all food into containers or the pantry. Always wash up your dirty plates and remove all food scraps to a secure place!

photo credit: Rutger Blom

There are  three main reasons why dogs chew:

• Firstly it is a natural process. It’s fun for them, helps them pass the time, and it’s a self-rewarding, self-reinforcing activity especially if they are chewing something that tastes good.

• If a dog is bored, nervous, lonely or suffering from separation anxiety then they may chew as an outlet for their emotions. It’s a bit like humans hitting the chocolate or whatever your comfort food of choice is!

• If your dog hasn’t had enough exercise then they will often use chewing as a way of burning up nervous energy and giving themselves something to do.

Over the next few days we are going to look ove some things that we can do to minimise destructive chewing.

photo credit: salsaboy

Not all dogs chew but when they do it can cause a lot of stress in the household. You can stop dogs chewing but first we have to understand the act of chewing. Destructive chewing seems to be a weakness among some dogs; there seem to be a couple of reasons for this:

•    They find it a pleasurable activity

•    They turn to it out of desperation when they are very bored

The phrase “destructive chewing” may sound a little odd because, of course by its very nature, all chewing is destructive. Dogs have strong jaws full of razor-sharp teeth: just about anything they start to chew on is in all probability going to show the effects of it inside of it almost immediately. When using the term “destructive chewing” we are referring to chewing of an inappropriate nature. This usually means: the kind of chewing that is focused on your possessions rather than your dogs designated toys and chews.