CHEWING

I wish I had a pound for every time an owner has said to me, ‘help the puppy is eating the house’. Chewing to puppies is as normal as breathing that does not mean you have to put up with your house gradually disappearing and re appearing deposited in one way or another in the garden.
Do puppies chew your house to ruin your life? No, but let’s look at why they do it. By understanding what motivates your puppy to chew you will be better able to deal with the situation when it occurs and believe me it will. I have never met a dog owner yet who does not have a tiny set of teeth marks permanently imbedded in some part of their house.

The obvious thing is that puppies do not have hands! No, I have not gone crazy, for a puppy their mouth is the only way of discovering the world. Every new thing they discover, if small enough, disappears into their mouth and if too big they work out ways of getting their mouths around the object. One of my puppies once decided to investigate the iron bars of the back gate and over stretched his mouth to accommodate two bars and the gap between them and promptly got stuck. What ensued was a rescue mission of me with the car jack squashing the bars together and did I get a thank you ...........I released him he gave himself a good shake and off he went on another safari around the garden.

So where does this drive to put things in their mouth come from? It starts at birth, the bitch encourages them to feed and they suckle. That’s right, the very first lesson they learn after birth is that things in their mouth are rewarding and comforting just like a baby with a dummy. The action of suckling and feeding releases endorphins in the brain, the happy drug. Every time a puppy feeds it reinforces the message that things in the mouth are good.

For this reason when you bring your puppy home you should ensure you have some hard rubber robust toys for the puppy. Many people blame all chewing on teething, I believe because people like to humanise their dogs, but if you stop and think about it puppies have been known to chew up to and over eight months of age some even longer. Their adult teeth are in by then that added with the fact that dogs have extremely high pain thresholds so chewing as a response to teething pain is very unlikely.

The causes of chewing in the home

Investigation – puppies new to the world and new to your home want to investigate and that means as we said earlier everything goes in the mouth and if it won’t go in the mouth tries to go round it. With your puppy investigating the world any kind of chewing is the answer so make sure there are robust toys about that can stand up to the chewing. When you catch your little explorer attempting to investigate something he should not like the table leg, make a loud noise such as AHHHHHHHHHHHHH (do not use a word and make sure he does not know the sound came from you) if your timing is perfect he will think the table leg shouted while he is considering the fact that the table leg screamed in pain distract him with a toy. The reason for this is he is in investigation mode and any attempt on your part to force him to stop chewing will just spur him on so just direct him to something he is allowed to chew. By dealing with chewing in this way you will not create attention seeking chew.

Attention seeking – if you do a good impression of Basil Fawlty every time your puppy puts his mouth on something and he associates your attention with chewing, you will be encouraging his chewing. In your puppies head it is as simple as chewing = attention therefore the answer to him is chew more.

Unbalanced diet – it has been proven that puppies lacking calcium in their diet can resort to eating stones and plaster. The answer to this is to ensure your puppy is receiving a balanced diet.
Separation chewing – coming home to find that your table instead of having four legs now has three legs and a stump. Remember, we said puppies associate chewing with feeling good (endorphins) so any anxiety stress tends to see puppies running for the closest thing they can get in their mouth or get their mouth round. At the first sign of any anxiety in your puppy for any reason seek help immediately. Anxiety in pups is very easy to resolve however if left it can culminate into serious behavioural issues.

Boredom – puppies left alone for long periods of time with no stimulation get bored (especially the high drive breeds) and the boredom leads to frustration which leads to stress and puppies do not cope with boredom and frustration. Again, they want something in their mouth to give them that happy feeling and relieve the bad feeling. This type of chewing tends to lead to the massive destruction campaigns. To keep your pups stimulated a great tool is a Kong which can keep your pup occupied for hours. The secret to using a Kong successfully is to pack it solid (biscuits do not work) I tend to use something like corn beef. What you could think of doing especially if your pup is on a meat diet is packing his breakfast into his Kong. Only ever use the Kong in your absence when it is full of food. If your puppy is allowed to play with it like a normal toy he will tire of it you want him to associate it always as being packed with food.
TIP if chewing is a major issue in your house try to keep your pup in your sight when you are indoors. At times when this is not possible or you have to go out, confine your puppy to a small area such as a crate or the kitchen with the use of a baby gate. Make sure he has water and a Kong. In confining him during his chewing stage you are limiting the damage to one area and one room is a lot easier to puppy proof than the whole house.