Do you often get home after a hard days work to find your beautiful cushions ripped to shreds, corners of your new carpet torn up and bite marks in that expensive table you saved for years to be able to afford? I'm going to let my Shih Tzu dog, Ozzy, help you find a solution to stop dogs chewing. He'll explain why dogs chew and tell you what dogs enjoy chewing and how to stop your dog chewing furniture!
WHY DO DOGS CHEW?
Hello, my name is Ozzy and I've just had my first birthday. I used to chew my mum's carpet and there's still a big hole in the corner of our dining room, oops! We chew because when we're puppies aged between 14-28 weeks old, we're teething and by chewing things, it helps to soothe our gums and loosen them around our teeth. This allows our 'baby teeth' to fall out so that our 'big teeth' came come through. It also strengthens our teeth and gums.
Once we're around six months old, and possibly for the next 18 months, we want to explore! Babies use their hands to explore, dogs and puppies use their mouths! We want to know what everything tastes like. Dogs have been doing this since the beginning of time, it's in our nature to chew! Destructive chewing can be a problem though so you need to figure out how to stop it fast!
Here's the clever bit: When we chew, it causes a chemical release of endorphins which calms us down. Chewing helps relieve stress and anxiety. It makes us feel better, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're stressed or anxious if we chew.
SO WHAT CAN I DO TO STOP DOGS CHEWING?
When it comes to chewing, it makes no difference to us if it's an expensive sofa or a stick that we've picked up from the garden. We have no sense of value, we're dogs for goodness sake! We need you to teach us what's ours and what's yours. We need you to give us things that we're allowed to chew. If we've nothing to chew that's ours, we'll just go for the first thing we can lay our teeth on (your sofa, table leg etc). To stop your dog chewing furniture, let us know what we can chew! If you give us an old shoe to chew, we're going to think that we have permission to chew all shoes!
The best thing that you can do is give us 3 or 4 toys (all different shapes and textures) to play with. Kongs are great, every dog should have one! They're rubber toys that you can fill with treats (marmite, cheese, biscuits, meat etc) and they give us hours of fun trying to chew all the tasty treats! Make sure you get one suitable for puppies first though. Nicer than a leather sofa any day! Other great things to chew are rawhide bones and rope tugs.
To stop your dog chewing furniture, spray a deterrent on it, like bitter apple spray, yuck!! If something has that on it, you can guarantee that us dogs will be stopping chewing that!
REWARD US FOR BEING GOOD!
If you see us chewing one of our toys, and not your dining room chair, then praise us. It helps us to learn! Don't do it too much though, if we're having a good chewing session we don't really want to be interrupted. If you do catch us chewing something that we shouldn't, a firm 'NO' will do the trick. Make sure that you then give us something that we can chew which will help to stop your dog chewing furniture!
It's important to praise us when we're being good and correct us when we're being bad.
So there's a few tips on how you can stop dogs chewing!
Discover how a totally stressed out dog owner finally managed to get her dog barking under control by clicking HERE!
For all dog training problems you need to practice dog obedience training daily. Visit FREE DOG TRAINING to get your FREE 6 DAY COURSE and get one to one personalised consultation with a trained dog professional.
Good Luck!
Whats On My YouTube Today?
Simply Fido Dog Toys - Rope Chew Toys
Here Are A Few Items From Amazon You Might Be Interested In.
 Everlasting Fun Ball Large List Price: Sale Price: $7.19 You save: $3.80 (35%)  Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours  |
 Petstages Just For Fun No Stuffing Plush Big Squeak Elephant for Large Dogs List Price: Sale Price: $5.37 You save: $4.62 (46%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
 StarMark Everlasting Fun Ball, Dog Toy Medium / Large List Price: Sale Price: $9.14 You save: $3.85 (30%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
 Space Station Hard Rubber Dental Toy List Price: Sale Price: $10.27 You save: $4.72 (31%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
 Zanies Plush Bungee Geckos Dog Toy, 16-Inch, Purple List Price: Sale Price: $2.20 You save: $6.54 (75%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
 Ware Pine and Loofa Wraps Small Pet Fun Chew Treat, Pack of 4 List Price: Sale Price: $0.88 You save: $0.90 (51%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
 Nylabone Dura Toy Snuggle Juggles Fabric Dog Toy, Purple List Price: Sale Price: $8.41 You save: $7.58 (47%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
 Premier Busy Buddy Funny Bone Dog Toy List Price: Sale Price: $8.43 You save: $8.56 (50%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
 Ware Foraging Fun Small Pet Toy with Bell List Price: Sale Price: $1.50 You save: $1.96 (57%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
 Grriggles 14-Inch Cotton Dog Rope Bone Chew Toy, Red List Price: Sale Price: $5.07 You save: $2.92 (37%) Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days |
Items recently purchased on this site:
Thanks for visiting!
Tags: art, data, fun