“How do I stop my dog chewing?”. This is 1 of the most frequent problems dog owners face at some point, it’s important to realize that dogs are sense-orientated animals and enjoy to get to know objects through their mouth. Puppies, similar to babies have a tendency to go through teething stages in which their gums are a in great distress, chewing on something helps temporarily ease it, in order to save your belongings, supply your dog with a frozen washcloth as an substitute.
Ahead of attempting to train your dog, you need to understand the motive for his chewing tendencies. In puppies, this behaviour is instigated when they are keen to look around surroundings and to relieve pain from developing teeth. Grown up dogs generally do it with frustration| anxiousness, phobia, tension or trying to get your attention. Some dogs do it simply as they have not been trained or taught to stop chewing.
The first step in managing this behavior is to hide all things that you don’t want your dog to chew and arrange soft chewable toys around him. These toys are useful in relieving the pain of teething. Though, you should make sure that it is harmless to chew, cannot be swallowed or break whilst in his mouth. Always try to avoid plastic made hard chewable toys. Filling toys with doggie snacks is one of the most effective techniques to keep your dog stimulated and busy. Also your dog loves the habit of receiving treats out of the toy. This aids to encourage dogs to chew only toys.
If you see your dog chewing 1 of your possessions, it is essential to deal with the issue there and then, fill a bottle with a squirty top up with water and squirt him in the face, if this isn’t possible at that moment then disrupt his chewing with a loud sound each time, he will start to affiliate chewing with the noise and will think twice about it. However, if you do catch your dog in the act, you shouldn’t chase him to get your items back, nor let it turn into a ‘tug of war’ between you and the dog, he will think it’s a game and be even more unwilling to let go. The most effective control tends to come instantly right after an incident has happened, if you do it later, your dog won’t make the link about what he’s done wrong.
Few tips which you can abide by during training:-
- Dogs function on rewards:-This is greatest technique to appreciate him by providing treats when he shows good behavior and also ignore him when he behaves badly.
- Inadequate diet:- This is one of the major reasons behind chewing behaviour as they are searching for particular needed nutrients. This difficulty can be fixed by giving sufficient nutritional food to your dog.
- If your dog enjoys to chew a certain thing, then you can coat it with non toxic bad tasting stuff.
- You shouldn’t lash out, put him into a crate or use a bad tone in your voice to stop dog chewing. If you find any blunders in his actions, correct it without delay because dogs have a limited attention span and might forget things fast.
By Ruchi Vasishta