by: Cassandra Stinchcombe

So you got a new puppy this holiday season and so far, his chewing has cost you more then what you spent on Christmas presents. Before your puppy starts chewing up your wallet or needs surgery to remove something, he’s swallowed, lets look at ways to stop you puppy from chewing things he shouldn’t.

Where do you start? First, are you reasonably sure that your puppy is healthy? There is a medical condition called Pica that can cause your puppy to chew and eat non-food items to try to deal with nausea. If you reasonably sure that puppy has, a clean bill of health then lets move on.

With dogs, in general you need to accept that chewing is a normal healthy activity and is part of a puppy’s development. Just like children, puppies learn from exploring everything around them and part of that exploring is chewing. Also like children, puppies don’t know what is safe and what is dangerous, they need your protection and guidance to teach them what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.

The number one thing to always remember when training your dog is consistency. When training your dog not to chew you will need to chose a word or sound that means “No” or “Bad”. I would however not recommend using the words “No” or “Bad”, training a new dog can be challenging enough, in the beginning you will be correcting the dog a fair bit and who wants to continually be saying “No” or “Bad”, this can leave a person feeling very negative about the whole experience. “Ah Ah” is what I have found to be quite effective. With consistent training using “Ah Ah” or whatever command you choose your dog should learn to respond instantly. When you catch you puppy chewing on anything they are not suppose to say “Ah Ah” take the item away and replace it with a toy they are allowed to chew on. Get you puppy to start chewing on the toy and then praise them. You may need to try a chemical additive such as Bitter Apple on any items your dog habitually chews on. In later articles, we will talk about crate training, which is another effective way to stop chewing behaviour.

Remember the best way for your dog to learn not to chew unacceptable household items is by not letting them even start. By keeping items out of reach of you dog he will only chew on his toys. Dogs are creatures of habit, the more times they chew shoes the more difficult it will be to get them to stop. If for most of their puppy years all they’ve chewed on is their toys they will mostly likely only chew on their toys. Remember the key to all dog training is consistency, so don’t give up and you’ll soon have a very happy relationship with your new friend.

by: Russ Richer

Current info about puppy chewing is not always the easiest thing to locate. Fortunately, this report includes the latest puppy info available.

An owner must realize that all dogs and certainly all puppies chew. They will chew almost anything that they can get into their mouth.

Therefore, the owner must puppy proof the place were the puppy will spend its time. Most puppies do not know what is safe and what is not safe. The puppy must be gently taught what the rules are for interacting with humans.

To do this the owner must provide correct objects for the puppy to chew. Correct objects include anything that is not made of material that you do not want your puppy to chew. For example, if you do not want your shoes chewed to shreds, then do not give your puppy leather toys to chew. If you do not want your furniture chewed then do not give your puppy toys that are made of fabric or rope. For safety reasons, it is not a good idea to give puppies bones and other animal parts. The best thing to give your puppy are objects made of rubber for dogs to chew and objects made of a special nylon, made for dogs to chew. These items tend to not smell, feel, look or taste like anything in your home. By doing this the owner will make it easy for the puppy to distinguish what is correct to chew and what is not.

If your puppy should put any part of your person in its mouth, gently tell the puppy not to do this and give the puppy the correct thing to put in its mouth. The same applies to unacceptable objects that a puppy might try to chew. Do not try to yank or otherwise pull these objects from the puppy’s mouth. You could hurt the puppy, even pull out a tooth or two. You will also trigger the puppy’s grab reflex which is not what you want to do. Yanking things that are in a puppy’s mouth could teach the puppy to have a pulling contest. When the puppy takes the correct object into its mouth and releases the wrong object, be sure to praise the puppy for doing what is correct. Remember, the puppy does not know what is right and wrong unless it is shown.

Aggressive behavior will not go away on it own, nor will the dog get better with age. The biggest mistake that owners make is to excuse away aggressive behavior for their dog or puppy, and hope that the behavior is outgrown. However, the behavior only gets worse with age.

Do not try to correct a puppy that has true aggressive problems without help from a professional. Many people feel that enough love, or enough corrective behavior will fix the problem. Neither will take care of any aggressive behavior in a dog any age. Especially when it manifests itself in a puppy that is under six months of age. The owner of such a puppy is foolish to try to fix this problem by themselves.

A responsible dog owner will not tolerate aggressive behavior from either a puppy, a young adult or an adult dog. A well socialized, bred and adjusted puppy or dog will feel no need to act aggressively. A dog that chooses to act this way demonstrates that there is a problem with the dog’s relationship with humans. Often it is a case where the dog has been taught (from puppyhood) to act inappropriately in given situations. Or the dog decides that aggressive behavior is needed when it is not.

Most of this information comes straight from the puppy pros. Carefully reading our program virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know. You can learn more about Puppy Health & Training at http://www.dogdaypets.com/perfectpuppy.html.