Dog Chewing Problems

Dog chewing problems can be very frustrating to deal it. Many dog owners experience the frustration of having a new puppy tear up their your favorite pair of shoes, or destroying the corner of their favorite couch.

Unfortunately chewing behavior is very natural for dogs, and it is something that they need to do in order to help maintain their dental health. Not only that, it helps relieve some of their stress and is actually a way to enrich their lives.

But dog chewing problems can be very detrimental to our house and to the things that we love. Before we go about learning how to stop dog chewing problems, let's look some of the more common causes of it.

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1.  Too Much Energy: The dog may not be getting enough exercise, so chewing on things is one way to get rid of extra energy.

2.  Bored:   I believe one of the main causes of dog chewing problems is simply that they are bored. They may not have enough toys to play with, or are bored because there are simply not enough activities.

3:  Tooth Pain:   Many puppies, when they're going to through the teething process will chew on things to help relieve some of that pain.

How to Stop Dog Chewing

1.  Chew Proof House

The first thing that you need to do is to chew proof your house. This means that anything that you don't want your dog to chew on needs to be picked up and stored away. Any shoes should be put away in a closet, and anything that your dog can reach it should somehow be protected.

Also any food items like dirty dishes, or leftover foods like snacks should not be put at lower levels where a dog could reach them.

2.  Chew Alternatives

It's not enough to simply punish your dog for chewing on your things, you must give him an alternative. This could be in the form of any sort of chew toy that you can imagine.

But is important that your chew toy not resemble a shoe or some other household items. This way your dog can clearly distinguish between the different shapes of things that can be chewed and things that cannot be chewed.

3.  Rotate Toys

One way to keep your dog busy and interested in chewing on things other than your furniture is to constantly rotate new toys to him. 

Simply buy several toys and only give him one or two toys each week. Then after a week take those toys away and give him two different toys. You can keep this rotation going every two weeks or add more toys and so he is only exposed to a certain toys for one week every month.

Habits & Consistency

I just want to mention one last word about habits and consistency. Remember that habits are hard to break. And one of the fastest way to break them is to consistently practice a new behavior.

So if you want to solve dog chewing problems quickly, everyone in your household, including your children and husband have to a agree on what the dog is allowed to chew and what it is not allowed to chew on.

If your children let the dog chew on the furniture while you are away at the work, it can be much harder and much more frustrating to correct this common dog behavioral problem.