Suzanne Harris, CPDT

Chew Training

It's a mistake to think that just because your puppy isn't destroying the house when he's 3 months old, he won't need to be Chew Trained.  Many pups don't start chewing and destroying until they are well into their first year of life.  You can avoid this scenario by Chew Training your pup while he is young.

You probably know that It is natural and necessary for puppies to chew.  Your puppy, however, probably doesn’t know what you want him to chew and what you don’t want him to chew.  You can’t expect him to know until you take the time to teach him.  

 If your puppy decides today to chew on your coffee table, it’s because:  

      puppies need to chew
      dogs like to chew
      you didn’t teach him what was OK to chew
      he has nothing else to do
      you left him access to the coffee table

Don’t bring a puppy into your home and just hope he’ll know that furniture, baseboards, the kids’ toys, your shoes, and the remote control are off-limits.  I can guarantee you, he won’t know.  Instead, it’s your job to give him some Chew Training Lessons.  Until you have done so, you only have the right to say to yourself “Bad Owner!  Bad not teaching puppy what to chew!”

Never punish your pup when you discover that he has chewed something.  After all, it’s your fault you allowed him access to your shoes.  Additionally, he won’t have any idea what you’re punishing him for if it’s any more than 2 seconds after he has committed the crime.  

If you punish him “after the fact”, the only thing he’ll learn is “My owner is untrustworthy.  Sometimes when s/he enters the room, s/he’s happy, and other times s/he punishes me.”   Your unpredictability, in your dog’s mind, can increase his anxiety during the day, causing him to chew even more in anxious anticipation of your arrival home and the potential impending punishment!   Ultimately, punishment at any time other than the instant of the infraction will badly deteriorate the trust between you and your dog.  

 So how do you teach your dog what’s right to chew and what’s wrong?  

Provide many appropriate chew toys.
The best Chew Training item on the market is a Kong^® or similar rubber toy with a hollow center and two open ends (to avoid the possibility of creating a dangerous vacuum).  No, I don’t own stock in Kong, but after training puppies and their owners for 15 years, it’s the only thing that consistently works to truly Chew Train a dog.   
I strongly recommend at least 3-4 Kong^® toys per puppy.   Smear the inside of your Kongs with a thin layer of honey or peanut butter, and then cram a portion of your dog’s daily ration of dry dog food into the remaining gap.  You can (and many puppy owners should) even feed your puppy out of Kongs instead of food bowls, every day.

Another great idea is to moisten your dog’s dry kibble in a bowl until it gets mushy, cram the paste into your Kongs, and freeze them overnight.  The next day you’ll have several “dogcicles” to occupy your pooch’s day.

Plush toys, squeaky toys, and most other items at your local pet store do NOT teach your dog what’s OK to chew.  They don’t hold his interest for long, and many of them don’t last very long either.  Go ahead and get them because they’re cute, but don’t expect your dog to learn anything about chewing, and don’t expect your dog to like chewing them more than your shoes or baseboards.

Raw beef bones are the only other items I can recommend you give your pup for true Chew Training.  You can get these at your butcher or meat department.  (Do not use pork bones!)   A raw beef bone will hold his interest because it’s filled with marrow, and it’s good for him to chew on raw bones.  When he’s gotten all the marrow out, you can stuff the raw bone as you do the Kong toy, or just let him gnaw on the lovely rawness of it.   

Do not confuse raw beef bones with bleached or smoked bones so common at pet stores.  Although you can stuff the bleached and smoked bones, you must dispose of them the instant they splinter. 
 
Do not allow your puppy access to inappropriate chewables.  

Keep your shoes in the closet with the door closed securely.  Put your garbage in a cabinet, or get a lidded step-on can.  Your kids’ toys need to be in a toy chest, or their room doors must remain closed.  Your pup can’t be in the living room alone, or for that matter near any good furniture alone.   Remote controls, books, and pretty much everything else should be out of pup’s reach until he’s at least 8 months old, so that he never discovers the joys of the “steal & chase” game.  (Incidentally, do not chase your dog to retrieve a stolen item unless it is absolutely life-threatening to him, such as sharp items, long stringy items, or rocks.  Paper products like cardboard and toilet paper pass right through so don’t give him attention for these.)  See Puppy-proofing your home for more details.

If you have to leave the house for an hour or two, it’s OK to leave him in his crate with a stuffed Kong or two.  If it’s longer than 2 hours, leave him in your kitchen filled with stuffed Kongs and/or bones.   (Although it’s not officially a chew training toy, a Buster Cube is also a great toy to stuff and give him while you’re away. It keeps him too busy to chew up the house, so it qualifies.)
 
Exercise your puppy/dog vigorously and daily. 

This means at least 2 hours of total walking or running time for a pup under 4 months per day, and at least 4 hours of total walking or running time for a pup from age 4 months to 2 years.  Leaving him outside in the yard for hours does not count. 

Your dog has a lot of energy.  He will find a way to expend it if you don't.  Chewing is the first way he will try to expend it.  Exercise him.  Exercise him.  Exercise him.

Other ways to stop the destruction:

Spray your furniture legs, all baseboards, and all wall corners with a taste deterrent such as Bitter Apple or one of many others now on the market.  If you have dark wood, Tabasco sauce often does the trick (it’s what I used for my Akita mix way back when.)  Don’t wait for your pup to discover the joys of wood or drywall.  Spray them now, and the first time he ever tastes them will be his last.  

 Praise your pup each time he chews something right.   Remember, a behavior that is reinforced with increase in frequency.
 
Occasionally practice “entrapment”:  Bring your pup to something you do not want him to chew, and if he puts his mouth on it, correct him with a quick “Off!”, and then give him a good chew toy and praise him when he takes it.
 
Keep all of your family’s greetings and departures very low-key and casual.  Never make a fuss when you come home or leave.   Big Emotional Hello’s and Goodbye’s can badly increase his anxiety while you’re gone, and anxiety can increase destructive behavior. Before you leave the house for a while, just bring him outside to pee, then ignore him for the last 5 minutes before you leave. When you get home, take him outside and do not greet him until 5 minutes after you’ve been home.