My college roommate’s dog was infamous as a pup for his destructive prowess. During the first 9 months he lived with us, he ruined a total of 14 pairs of shoes, and destroyed pretty much every pillow in the house. His tastes in chewing were unlimited-ranging from packs of cigarettes, large candles, and even aluminum foil (it hurts my teeth even to think about it). The results of his more exotic culinary escapades were visible in the backyard where he would deposit them for our entertainment. It was truly amazing the kinds of things this dog had digested. Back then I didn’t know anything about training dogs, and I never even tried to stop that crazy dog’s chewing problems. He finally grew out of his feeding frenzy at about 9 months of age, but so much damage  had already been done. More recently I  my Lab puppy (a female) enjoyed  chewing anything my new girlfriend’s scent was on.-bikinis, shoes-anything of hers in the closet was fair game. I found this to be interesting-because as a puppy the Lab didn’t have the usual chewing problems. As soon as I became clever enough to remember to close the bedroom door-no more problem.

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It is easy to figure out why puppies and young dog are potentially so destructive. We should use ability to understand why a puppy is chewing to help control the damage.While the puppies are in their teething stage, they experience a lot of discomfort, and need to chew on things because of this. That is why younger dogs, up to about age 3, are more likely to be problem chewers than an older dog. Dogs may just chew on something, even if they are older, jst to be doing something. Your dog may be doing some chewing just because he is bored or lonely and under-exercised. Whatever the reason may be, it is a problem that you can solve.

Try out these tips for controlling your own puppy or dog’s chewing problems.

1.   The most obvious way to do some dog proofing of the house is to put the dog out in the yard during the times you are away from the house. If you would rather keep your dog inside the house, (or if he has a doggy door and can enter at will), you’ll need to be sure to keep desirable chewable items out of reach of your dog. By just using a little common sense you can easily stop your dog from chewing the loose things in your bedrooms and other rooms- just close the doors to those rooms.  Keep your shoes in a closed closet. Be sure to keep your remote controls, cell phones, (anything that’s got that nice crunchy texture that he loves) out of reach by placing it higher up on a shelf. You should always make sure no food is left within his reach-put the food away in a cupboard or the frig. Of course, the bigger your dog is the higher you will have to put your loose things. Since your dog can stand up on his hind legs, make sure you consider that when putting something tempting away.

2.   Give your pet a few alternative items to work out his chewing needs on. Chew toys are a wonderful and suitable substitute for your slippers. Among the various chew toys, I like the Kong best-it keeps my dogs occupied for a long time. the Kong is an odd shaped ball like toy with a hollow center that I like to put peanut butter into. Your pet will spend a lot of time trying to get  at the treat through the little hole in the Kong. Because of its odd shape,the Kong  also bounces like crazy when you throw it, and makes a great fetch toy. It is a good idea to have a variety of chew toys so he doesn’t get bored with only one toy. Now that he is chewing on an acceptable chew toy, the puppy chewing your stuff up will be much less of a problem.

3.   You should stop your puppy from chewing anything unapproved immediately whenever you catch him in the act. Clap your hands together loudly, and say “no”. This serves to get his attention. This will surely let him know he is goofing up. However, don’t punish your dog by hitting or yelling at him. You don’t want to scare him, just correct him. Instead of yelling, stay calm and exchange whatever hie is chewing on and replace it with his Kong or other chew toy. Immediately after he puts that in his mouth praise him big time. Before long, he will understand that some things are good to chew and others aren’t. Being the smart dog he is, he’ll soon learn it is much better to do things that get him praise and a reward instead of a correction. Sort of like us people. Be sure not to punish your dog for something he chewed earlier while you were not at home. It is only OK to correct your dog if you catch him in the act of doing something wrong. Your dog doesn’t understand why you are correcting him, unless he can relate it to whatever he is doing at the present moment. By correcting him after he has already stopped the problem activity, you will only cnfuse your doggy, not help solve the problem.

So, you can see it is fairly easy to control  dog chewing problems by using a little common sense. If you keep your pup or dog away from those things of yours that he loves to chew he can no longer destroy them. given that, you may want to consider keeping your puppy or dog outside in the yard while you are away form the house. All dogs will want something to chew at times, so be sure to make it a chew toy instead of something you don’t want destroyed.

Hopefully you have found this advice to be helpful with saving some of your possessions.

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