Tips to Stop Your Puppy From Chewing

Quest Chewing - Tips to Stop Your Puppy From Chewing

Chewing is a natural puppy behavior, but it can also be a real headache for their new family when you want them to stop chewing on furniture, stop chewing shoes, stop chewing clothing, stop chewing kids toys or even puppy figurines, lol.

In this video I share some puppy training tips to stop puppy chewing from happening in the first place.

If you would like more information on setting up a puppy play pen, use this link to check out a previous post I did that includes instructions. Out of sight is a great strategy when it comes to puppy chewing.

Making sure your puppy has access to appropriate chew toys when it is in a chewing mood is something many people fail to do. If you don’t provide a suitable option, the pup will look for some on its own. This link has info about appropriate chew toys for your pup.

A few other thoughts on chewing. Training your puppy to drop it can be an extremely effective command when it comes to this problem. Pulling an object away from a puppy can make it what we refer to as a high value item. Puppies are more likely to look for this item in the future if you chase it when it has said item or pull it away.

To teach your pup to drop things on command, simply wait for it to start chewing one of the toys it is allowed to have. Get a high value meat treat with a strong aroma and hold it an inch in front of your pup’s nose.

The pup may try to get the treat with the toy in its mouth. Just wait for it to drop the toy and as soon as it does, pop the treat in its mouth and say “drop” at the same time.

If you practice the drop enough with low value items (things the puppy can have at any time) that they get again after they eat the treat, they will do the same with things you don’t want to have later on. Just make sure you practice the drop a lot before trying with a high value item.

Also, when taking away a high value item after the drop, be sure to give your pup a high value appropriate chew toy like a carrot (detailed in this post), bully stick, cow’s ear etc. This way the pup doesn’t feel cheated and you redirected them into an appropriate chew item as they obviously felt a need to chew.

Providing your pup with appropriate chew toys and redirecting them towards the right thing is much more effective that other techniques. If you make a big deal out of something your puppy chewed, you can inadvertently make that items something the pup comes back to chew over and over.

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