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Chewing
Relief
Chewing: How to Survive
First:
We've all been there. Almost every dog goes through a phase
in which it hasn't yet learned what is okay to chew.
When you're in the middle of housetraining or chewing
problems, it seems like it'll never end. Often, just when
you think you can't take it anymore, they train themselves.
It'll come.
Second:
Chewing is a natural activity for growing dogs. That is
completely normal. But chewing inappropriate things is
annoying, at best, and lethal, at worst. There are lots of
remedies for chewing. Especially when you consider the main
causes.
Adult dogs (and puppies too) often chew out of sheer
boredom. The cure for solving this aspect of chewing is
lots of exercise. No dog should be left alone longer than a
couple of hours without first having so much muscle-working
exercise and play that it is quite tired. After a good run, you can bring the dog home, give it a chance to
cool down, feed it a meal, and it will probably sleep for hours.
Dogs chew whatever they're allowed to chew. On the one
hand, some people don't teach their dogs what is and isn't
appropriate to chew. On the other hand, some people
actually confuse their dogs by giving them toys that mimic
household items. (Some people give their dogs stuffed toys, then wonder why the dog tears apart cushions.
Some people feed rawhides shaped like shoes, then wonder why
the dog chews their shoes. Some people give their dogs rope
toys, then wonder why the dog eats the rug.)
Regardless of the cause, there are things you can do to
solve inappropriate chewing.
First, ensure that a very young puppy is not left alone for
more than two hours at a time. (this is usually a given, if
you're still working on housetraining - two hours between
outside trips, max.) Although crates can assist with
housebreaking, they certainly aren't necessary to accomplish
this feat and shouldn't be considered a long-term
babysitter. Crates do keep a young puppy safe from hazards
while the owner is away, but way too many people use them to
restrict the dog for multiple hours at a time. Most humane
organizations consider crating a dog for 8 hours every
single day to be abusive. An older puppy or dog can learn
to stay by him/herself for several hours per day. Just try
to remember that it is completely unnatural for a dog to be
alone. Every minute that a dog spends alone is stressful.
If you keep that fact in mind, you'll naturally try to do
the right thing for your dog, in so far as leaving him alone
is concerned. Do everything you can to minimize the amount
of time your dog is without you.
Next, there’s no need to punish a dog. If the dog is
chewing something s/he shouldn't, get an appropriate chew
toy and ask the dog to sit or down or whatever command the
puppy can do reliably. When s/he stops chewing to sit,
praise the puppy and hand him/her the appropriate toy to
chew on. When s/he does start chewing the toy, praise like
there's no tomorrow. Think of all training as teaching the
dog what you WANT him/her to do in a given situation, rather
than punishing it for doing something you don't want.
Keep it positive. Children, adults, dogs, horses...they all
respond well to positive commands, and fail miserably at
negative commands. I.E. When you give people a negative
command like “Don’t think about elephants.” all they can do
is think of elephants. When you give someone a positive
command like, “Sit down.” they can do that immediately,
without even thinking. If a child is playing with something
he shouldn't, you don't say "stop playing with that", but
rather give him a positive action he can focus on, like
"put that down" or "come here and see what I have in my hand." Same with
dogs.
If the
dog is chewing the crate and you see her doing it, give her
a command she knows, then give her something you want her to
chew on (a kong filled with peanut butter works well), and praise when she does begin
chewing the correct item.
A passive way to discourage chewing is to spray the desired
item
with bitterapple or other commercial product that tastes bad
to dogs.
My experience with the aggressive fosters I've had for
retraining is they chew out of boredom, habit, and a lack of
understanding of acceptable behaviour. Once these kinds of
dogs live in my house, with only positive reinforcement for
the behaviours I want to encourage, and simple redirection
of the behaviours I don't want, coupled with lots of play
and exercise, 100% consistency in the rules (what's not okay
when we're alone is still not okay when guests come over,
and vice versa), and as little time spent alone as possible,
chewing can usually be cured relatively quickly.
Good
luck!
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