Bryan’s thoughts on chewing
For a dog, especially when a puppy, chewing is a necessary activity. It strengthens the jaw muscles and cleans teeth. It is also very instinctual and good for them so you will not train it out of them. What you CAN do is train them what is OK to chew on and provide those things for them. Some dogs chew more than others but there is no “right amount” of chewing; the dog knows what he/she needs.
We have seen them chew on a huge variety of things..
- Rocks
- Trees
- Sticks
- Chair legs
- Trash
- Toys
- Stuffed animals
- Carpet
- Deer antlers (these are really good by the way but don’t step on them – they hurt!)
- Bones
- Leather goods (gloves, etc)
- Shoes
- Soda cans
- Plastic water bottles (they love these because they are also noisy)
- more than you can dream up – they will surprise you
When the puppies are small it’s best to keep anything you don’t want them to chew out of reach. They will find things despite your best effort and for those things you begin training them but when very young, try to limit their targets as they may swallow things that block their airway or hurt them inside. Once they are several months old I recommend leaving an old shoe you don’t care about laying in the floor as bait and then work with them when they start to chew it. Don’t encourage them but do leave it where they can find and you can watch it. Once you’ve conquered shoes (they LOVE to chew shoes), move on to other common targets by baiting them.
When you get a puppy the first three things you want to concentrate on are “Sit”, “Stay” and importantly for this discussion; “Leave it”. There are some really good and relatively easy training methods for “leave it” so I’ll leave them for another discussion but once your puppy understand what “leave it” means, your life will get easier.
So.. how do we manage chewing? First, have plenty of “Good Chews” that it’s OK for them to chew. Some suggestions:
- Bones from cows
- Large uncooked bones – femurs cut into smaller pieces, etc
- Rawhide bones
- Be careful – Read THIS ARTICLE, get “Made in USA” and still check the ingredients. Some imported rawhides are made with harsh chemicals and some even contain dog hide
- Deer Antlers
- 100% calcium and very durable but painful if you step on them
- Stuffed animals/toys
- Dogs LOVE to chew/nurse on stuffed toys
- Caution here.. They WILL destroy them and potentially make a mess. They will also think ANY stuffed toy is good for chewing so your kids or visitors may not be happy.
Once you’ve established what you think a “Good chew” is now the “fun” begins. Make sure you always have “Good Chews” handy to give your puppy as redirection to something OK to chew on is the only way forward here. You will need to be ever vigilant and catch your dog with a “Bad chew”. When this happens you should immediately move to the puppy and firmly (don’t shout or be mean but do be firm) say “No” or “Bad Chew” or “leave it”, take away the bad chew and give them the good chew. Wait for them to start chewing on it and then praise them but be sure to say “good chew” a lot so that they begin to understand what it means. Do this over and over and eventually your puppy should improve. Because chewing is so strongly instinctual it will be an ongoing process but typically as the puppy gets older the need to chew (for most dogs) decreases a little.
Sometimes the puppy figures out that you plan to take their chew and will try to run and hide with it. At this point you must be smarter than the puppy and… don’t lose your temper… really.. keep a lid on it. Try to get in the way of the puppy to block their escape if you can. If they have a place they typically run to, try to block off that place. Once you catch the rascal, firmly tell them “No” or whatever word you are using (be consistent), take away the bad chew then put them in “time out”. Basically put them somewhere small, like a bathroom, that they don’t normally get locked into (close cabinets and lower toilet seats and police any power cords or chemicals) and leave them with a good chew for 10 minutes. If they whine and complain and don’t stop, step in, tell them “Quiet” and step back out. Only after they are quiet do you let them out. Don’t make a big deal of letting them out; just let them come out and resume their lives. In time they will figure out that running away and hiding will get timeout but it may take some repetition.
There are many theories on how to control chewing. Most are good but the key is vigilance and consistency. I did not hear about the “timeout” idea until after our puppies were done with the running away thing but I plan to try it with our next puppy.
Final note on “Good Chews”: Dogs have powerful jaws and teeth; they WILL destroy anything you give them in time. The trick is to find what they like best (and different dogs like different things) and get that in the most durable form you can find. Our favorite chew of all time is something our local feed store called “Mammoth Bone” I think. It was actually a cow femur (complete with marrow) and was about 2 feet long and weighted around 3 or 4 pounds. It was so huge our puppies could not completely pick it up even at a year of age. I cut it in half with a power saw and they LOVE it. They chew on them endlessly and two bone halves have lasted over a year now and still mostly intact and it was around $10 if i remember correctly. If you are local, we got it at Strutty’s Feed and Pet Supply and heartily recommend it. Amazon.com has something similar HERE.